The Fantasy Factory
by ian.cotterill.56
Summary: An alternate version of the events of 'The Ultimate Foe' from 'The Trial Of A Time Lord'. In this variation of the tale, Peri is called in as a witness to the Doctor's trial along with Mel and Glitz, while the Doctor faces new dangers in the Matrix as the Valeyard's shocking identity and sinister plans are revealed...
1. Introduction

**'The Trial Of A Time Lord' had always produced a mixed reaction from me, not least because of the final two episodes in the arc entitled 'The Ultimate Foe'. Beset with problems and disagreements behind the scenes, the final episode in particular felt terribly underwhelming with some large plot holes and a noticeable load of technobabble. **

**This is a pity, cause at its heart, 'Trial' is an ambitious story with some memorable scenes, so after watching 2019's Season 23 blu-ray set, I got the idea of doing some rewrites to the story, giving a bit more explanation to the plot and adding some unused ideas from Eric Saward's original script for Episode 14 to give a more dramatic finale. I also decided to add in Peri as a witness to the Doctor's trial, as the revelation of her survival after 'Mindwarp' had always made me wonder why the Master did not transport her to the space station along with Mel and Glitz. In addition, I added a new scene in the Matrix with some old foes of the Doctor and I also tried to add a bit more clarity to the Valeyard's identity in order to establish what he is and how he came into being...**

**Credit for the original story goes to Robert Holmes, Eric Saward and Pip & Jane Baker. The story is written for entertainment purposes only and no copyright infringement is intended in any of the material I've reused.**

**Now sit back and enjoy as we transport you to... The Fantasy Factory.**

* * *

_THE STORY SO FAR..._

To say that the Doctor was having a bad day was an understatement. And at present, it looked set to become a great deal worse.

It had all started when the Doctor's TARDIS was taken out of time and deposited inside a giant cathedral-like space station, where he found himself in a large courtroom, being put on trial by his own people, the Time Lords. The Doctor had been accused of reckless meddling in the affairs of other worlds and the chief prosecutor, known as the Valeyard, strongly recommended that if found guilty, the Doctor should be terminated. The events of the trial were presided by the Inquisitor, an stern, but honest woman, who worked to make the trial as fair as possible, in spite of the Valeyard's constant demands for a verdict of guilty and the Doctor's continuous bursts of protest at the proceedings. The Doctor opted to act as his own defence counsel and strongly condemned the charges against him as being trumped-up, as he began to suspect that there was some ulterior motive as to why he was taken out of time and why the venomous Valeyard was so keen to see the Doctor dead.

Evidence for the prosecution was presented in the forms of data recordings from the Matrix, the repository of all Time Lord knowledge, which were displayed before the jurors on a large viewing screen. These depicted a couple of the Doctor's more recent adventures, which the Valeyard showed as evidence of the Doctor's unbecoming behaviour. It was clear from his attitude that the Valeyard himself was keen to turn this trial into a crusade against the Doctor, painting the hapless renegade as a menace to the entire universe. But exactly why the Valeyard had such a strong vendetta against the Doctor was at the moment unknown.

The first incident shown involved the Doctor's visit to the planet Ravalox, a world two billion years in the future that according to the files on Gallifrey had been devastated by a solar fireball. It was here that the Doctor got caught up in the machinations of two intergalactic conmen, Sabalom Glitz and his partner Dibber, who were seeking to steal a box of secrets from an underground chamber controlled by a power-crazed robot. During his investigations, the Doctor and his companion Peri had been shocked to discover that Ravalox was in fact the planet Earth, that had mysteriously been moved two lightyears away into space, an incident that somehow related to the three sleepers, the now-dead original guardians of the box of secrets that Glitz had attempted (and failed) to obtain. The Valeyard claimed that the Doctor's presence on Ravalox had escalated dangerous events and caused avoidable deaths, though the Doctor argued that he had in fact saved the entire universe rather than directly cause the deaths of innocents.

The second incident shown on the Matrix screen was considerably more damning regarding the Doctor's behaviour, as it showed the Doctor on the planet Thoros-Beta, apparently helping his old enemy Sil in a series of unethical mind-transferring experiments. In the courtroom, the Doctor found he had no memory of the events shown on the screen, due to his being snatched out of time by the Time Lords. He was thus shocked by the apparent behaviour of his past self and he was further dismayed when he saw his companion Peri having her mind wiped in order for her body to house the consciousness of the Mentor leader, Kiv, before her body was subsequently killed by King Yrcanos, leader of the resistance against the Mentors.

Heartbroken by the apparent death of Peri, the Doctor presented in his defence an adventure from his own future, where he and his companion Mel were called upon by the Commodore of the starship Hyperion III, to stop a small race of genetically-engineered plantoid creatures known as Vervoids that had overrun the ship and threatened to cause the destruction of all life on Earth. But as the events played out on the Matrix screen, the Doctor found that certain aspects of the recording had been changed since he had prepared his defence, such as one scene where he apparently sabotaged the ship's communications systems himself with a fire-axe! Having already begun to suspect that the Matrix recordings might have been tampered with during the display of the Thoros-Beta incident, the Doctor was now certain that someone was planting faked evidence in order to condemn him.

Nevertheless, the Doctor successfully presented his case that rather than interfering, his help was directly asked for by the person of authority, the starship's captain, and that without the Doctor, the entire human race would have been wiped out. But while the Inquisitor accepted this argument, the Valeyard countered by pointing out that in defeating and destroying the homicidal Vervoids, the Doctor had effectively committed genocide, a crime forbidden by Article Seven of Gallifreyan Law. With this new charge brought up, it looked as though the Doctor's fate was sealed...


	2. Part Thirteen - Chapter 1

The side-doors to the courtroom opened and a small elderly-looking Time Lord dressed in imposing-looking heliotrope robes strode into the large chamber, before stopping before the Inquisitor, who was still seated by her desk.

"I came as soon as I could, my lady," he said with a courteous bow.

"Thank you, Keeper," acknowledged the Inquisitor, before she swivelled her chair to face the Doctor, who was still standing in the dock placed next to the double doors of the main entrance, which was still being guarded by two members of Chancellery Guards.

"Doctor, do you have any further evidence in your defence?" asked the Inquisitor.

The Valeyard abruptly stood up from his own desk, as sinister-looking in his black-robes as he had been since the trial had begun. "My lady, with all due respect, have we not seen enough?" he argued. "Are you not forgetting Article Seven and the irrefutable charge which faces the Doctor, that of genocide?"

Annoyed by this interruption, the Inquisitor glared at the Valeyard. "I shall deal with that charge in due course, Valeyard. Now kindly don't interrupt me again."

A little chastened, the Valeyard got back into his seat as the Inquisitor turned again to face the Doctor.

"Doctor, do you have any further evidence in your defence?"

"No, my lady," said the Doctor crisply, flamboyant as ever in his coat of many colours, "but I would point out that much of the _Railyard's_ so-called evidence was a farrago of distortion which would have had Ananias, Baron Munchhausen and every other famous liar blushing down to their very toenails. Much of the evidence was not as I remembered."

"Do you still maintain that the Matrix has been tampered with?" asked the Inquisitor.

"Yes, madam, I do. All I do not yet understand is who did it and why."

"Your accusation would be laughable if it were not so outrageous," said the Inquisitor cooly, evidently not convinced by the Doctor's statements. "However, as you see, I have summoned the Keeper of the Matrix."

She turned to face the old Time Lord who had just arrived. "Keeper?"

"My lady," said the Keeper as he stood to attention before the Inquisitor.

"You have heard the Doctor's allegations. Is it at all possible for the data stored within the Matrix to be tampered with in any way?"

"Quite impossible, my lady," said the Keeper firmly as he proudly gestured to a large old-fashioned-looking key attached to the collar of office that hung about his shoulders. "No one may enter without the Key of Rassilon."

"And by whom may the key be used?" asked the Doctor.

"Qualified people, for inspection once in a millennium, perhaps. To replace a transductor," replied the Keeper.

"But keys can be copied, you'll agree?" prompted the Doctor.

The Keeper looked outraged by this very suggestion. "The Key of Rassilon never leaves my possession," he said crossly.

"Except when it's in the hands of those qualified people," concluded the Doctor.

"This is a ridiculous allegation, my lady," scoffed the Valeyard as he rose from his seat again. "The Doctor is challenging the evidence of the Matrix on the grounds that it has been tampered with, a charge he is totally unable to substantiate."

"That is accepted," agreed the Inquisitor, before turning to address the Doctor. "Doctor, wild accusations of malfeasance do not constitute a defence."

"The Matrix can be physically penetrated!" insisted the Doctor, refusing to back down with his life on the line. "The Keeper has admitted as much. Now, much of the evidence you saw was totally at variance with my own memory. Therefore, it has been deliberately distorted."

"And who would do such a thing, even if it were possible?" inquired the Inquisitor, clearly running out of patience.

"Somebody who wants my head, such as... the Valeyard!" proclaimed the Doctor as he pointed an accusing finger at his prosecutor who simply laughed at this accusation.

The Inquisitor regarded the Doctor icily. "Doctor, if you were not already facing the most serious charges, such an accusation levelled at a senior prosecutor would bring you into contempt!"

* * *

No one in the courtroom had any way of knowing it at the time, but at that precise moment the Doctor was about to get some surprising evidence to support his claim from the most unlikeliest of sources. Outside in the vastness of space, the Time Lord's Trial space station drifted silently through the darkness, when all of a sudden, the station's tractor beam, the same one that had previously attracted the Doctor's TARDIS, activated again, seemingly all by itself, its vast beam of blue-white light shooting through the porthole and out into space. Down this beam of light, three coffin-shaped containers tumbled down through the porthole and into the station. Seconds later, the containers had all materialised on their sides in a small alcove adjacent to the reception area where the TARDIS had landed.

For a moment all was still. Then the sound of banging began to be heard from inside the containers and the first one opened up to reveal a rather scruffy bearded man, dressed in breeches, boots and a ragtag-looking jerkin with a large stylised epaulette on his right shoulder. This was none other than Sabalom Glitz, intergalactic thief, planetary swindler and general troublemaker. He was just getting his bearings when he got distracted by a voice shouting angrily from the container directly next to his.

"Hey, what's the big idea? Get me out of this thing!"

"Uh-oh, I know that voice," said Glitz thoughtfully as he pulled the lid of the container open. From inside, a young woman clambered out, dressed in a sleeveless pink wrap top, pale blue culottes, white stiletto shoes and a loose-fitting kimono-style pink trimmed jacket with a stylish pattern of various shades of pink, blue and white. But the most noticeable thing about the girl was the fact that her head was completely bald, with not even a trace of stubble remaining. However, despite the lack of hair, Glitz recognised the girl at once.

"Well well, if it isn't the lovely Miss Peri Brown," said Glitz pleasantly. "What brings you here to this satellite in space?"

Peri glowered at the troublesome crook. "Sabalom Glitz? Oh great, just when I thought my day couldn't possibly get any worse."

Glitz gave a faux hurt look. "Charming as ever, eh? Though you look a little different since we met on Ravalox."

"Oh, don't remind me," sighed the American teenage botany student as she ran a hand over her smooth scalp in regret. "I didn't exactly ask for this haircut, if you must know."

Before she could elaborate, a shrill voice suddenly came from the third of the containers that had brought them here. "What's going on? Let me out of here!"

"Hey, who's that?" said Peri as she ran over to the container and worked to get it open.

"Probably Dibber," said Glitz, assuming that his partner in crime had come along for the unwilling ride too. "Though I wonder what's happened to the lad's voice?"

"I'm not Dibber," retorted the red-headed girl who Peri helped get out of the now-open container. "Neither am I a lad. And what's more, there's nothing wrong with my voice!"

"Oh pay no attention to him, he's not exactly the best guy at manners," said Peri as she smiled at the perplexed look on Glitz's face, before she held out a hand to the girl. "Hi, I'm Peri."

"Melanie, known as Mel," the young woman introduced herself with a friendly smile as she accepted the handshake. She was an attractive girl with a mass of curly red-hair and was dressed in a blue-coloured outfit, consisting of a plain top, trousers, boots and a loose cardigan.

"You're American, aren't you? From Earth? I don't suppose you've got any idea of what we're all doing here, do you?" Mel asked.

"Not a clue," said Peri. "A few minutes ago, I was on a refugee ship heading for Thoros-Alpha, helping some freed slaves get back home, when this way weird beam of light appeared and I found myself in that clammy box."

"Sounds similar to what happened to me. There I was, having a nice stroll along the beaches of Florana, when all of a sudden..." Mel's words suddenly trailed off as she realised something. "Hang on a minute. You said your name's Peri? As in the Doctor's friend, Peri Brown?"

"What?! You know the Doctor?" said Peri excitedly. "Is he here?"

"Well, he better be," said Glitz. "I've a message to deliver to him as a point of fact."

"Oh really?" said Mel as she eyed Glitz suspiciously. "As a matter of total disinterest, who are you?"

"Oh, Sabalom Glitz," said Glitz with a small bow. "Are they all like you here?"

"I don't know. Shall we go and find out?" suggested Mel. With that, the three of them walked out through a doorway into the reception area. There, a familiar sight greeted the two girls.

"The TARDIS!" exclaimed Peri. "That settles it! The Doctor's got to be here!"

"Well let's go and find him then," said Mel. "Maybe he can tell us what on earth is going on."


	3. Part Thirteen - Chapter 2

"There is only one to rebut the evidence of the Matrix, Doctor," pointed out the Inquisitor, "and that is to produce witnesses who can support your version of events. Can you do that?"

"Well, of course I can't. You know I can't," professed the Doctor.

"Then we must accept the Valeyard's evidence," concluded the Inquisitor.

"Any witnesses I might produce are scattered all over the universe and all through time. How can I find them now?" protested the Doctor.

"Procrastination, my lady," stated the Valeyard with a smile, certain that victory of the case belonged to him. "The Doctor's only..."

But the Valeyard's words trailed off and the smile disappeared from his face as three familiar figures suddenly burst through the main entrance doors and into the courtroom, right next to the dock where the Doctor was placed.

"Doctor, there you are," exclaimed Peri in relief. "Where the heck have you been? What is this place?"

For a moment, the speechless Doctor could only stare. Then a joyous smile spread across his face at seeing his companion alive and well, albeit with no hair left on her head.

"Peri? Is that really you?" he finally managed to say. "And Melanie and Glitz as well? What are the three of you all doing here?"

"I was sent, wasn't I," grumbled Glitz. "Not my idea, mind."

"Same here. What have you been up to?" said Mel.

"Be silent. Who sent you?" demanded the Inquisitor, who was as taken aback by this turn of events as everyone-else in the courtroom.

"Oh come off it, we can't answer that question and be silent at the same time, can we?" said Peri cheekily.

Glitz turned to the Doctor and pointed at the Inquisitor. "That's the beak, is it? They all look the same, don't they? Carved out of something hard and nasty."

Ignoring the insult, the Inquisitor repeated her question. "You said you were sent here, Sabalom Glitz. By whom?"

"By me, madam," answered a charming, but menacing voice.

All heads turned towards the the direction of the voice, which came from the Matrix screen itself. On it could be seen the image of a sinister-looking man with a black beard, dressed in a fine black velvet outfit. A smug smile was on his face as he surveyed the startled occupants of the courtroom with amusement.

It was none other than the Doctor's arch-rival, the Master.

"Oh no, what's he doing here?" groaned Peri at the sight of the villainous Time Lord whom she and the Doctor had clashed with before.

"Who's that?" asked Mel in confusion.

"Just one of my oldest enemies," sighed the Doctor. "Now I really am finished!"

The Inquisitor glowered at the figure on the screen. "This is entirely irregular. Who are you, sir?"

"I'm known as the Master," replied the evil renegade, "and as you see, I speak to you from within the Matrix. Proof, if any be needed, that not only qualified people can enter here. Just as the presence of the delightful Miss Perpugilliam Brown here proves that not everything you have seen on the Matrix was as it seems."

"But you haven't the Key of Rassilon!" protested the Keeper, unable to believe that his earlier assertion that the Matrix could not be tampered with had been proven utterly wrong.

"I got a very good copy, Keeper, just as the Doctor said was possible," smirked the Master, as he held up in his hand what indeed looked like the same key that currently hung on the Keeper's collar.

The Inquisitor was furious. "This is an independent inquiry appointed by the High Council to investigate serious charges..."

"Madam, I know!" cut across the Master, clearly enjoying the disruption he was causing. "I've followed the trial with great interest and indeed amusement, but now I must intervene for the sake of justice."

The Doctor could not believe his ears. "Justice?! Pay no attention, madam. He has no concept of what justice is. He'd see me dead tomorrow."

"Gladly, Doctor, but I'm not prepared to countenance a rival," said the Master as he turned his gaze towards the Valeyard, who was now looking decidedly edgy and uneasy.

"My lady, I must propose an immediate adjournment," suggested the Valeyard hastily, like a naughty child who was about to be found out by a grown-up.

The Inquisitor shook her head. "I'm sorry, Valeyard. The evidence for the prosecution is completed and the presence of the Doctor's companion, Peri, has thrown that evidence into question. The ball, as the Doctor might say, is out of your court."

The Master turned his head to face his arch-enemy. "Doctor, I've sent you three star witnesses. I knew you'd need them."

"With due respect, Sagacity, the matter of witnesses is for you to decide," pointed out the Valeyard as he regained a bit of his composure. "We've seen enough to know that Glitz is an admitted criminal and for all we know, the Earth female 'Peri' might in fact be the Lord Kiv, leader of the disreputable Mentors. Any testimony from either of these two persons must therefore be considered dubious in the extreme."

"Hey, I don't have the brain of Sil's vile boss in my head!" protested Peri.

"And you can't say my testimony would be unreliable," chimed in Mel. "I'm as truthful, honest, and about as boring as they come."

"This court is not, for the moment, impugning your integrity, young lady," the Inquisitor said to Mel.

"Let Sabalom Glitz speak," prompted the Master.

The Inquisitor considered this suggestion for a moment, then turned to address the Valeyard. "Criminals have been known to speak the truth, Valeyard, especially when their own interests are not at stake."

"My point, my lady, is that this person who calls himself the Master, whoever he might be, should not be permitted to produce surprise witnesses," said the Valeyard, his eyes glaring towards the Master.

"You pretend not to know me, do you?" said the Master with an expression of mock surprise. "I'm surprised by the shortness of the Valeyard's memory."

"The Doctor may, in his defence, call witnesses to rebut your evidence, after which you may cross-examine them. That is the procedure, Valeyard," admonished the Inquisitor.

"My lady," accepted the Valeyard, bowing his head in obedience, though it was clear from his expression that he was not at all pleased with what was happening.

"If I might intercede?" said the Master, leaning forward to address the Inquisitor.

"You have no part in these proceedings, sir!" snapped the Inquisitor.

"Corporeally, of course not, but I'm present, and enjoying myself enormously."

With an exasperated look, the Inquisitor addressed the Doctor, desperate to bring some sense of order back into the proceedings. "Doctor, please examine your witnesses."

"Yes, madam," said the Doctor before turning towards Glitz, who was busy examining the golden panelling on the jury panel next to him.

"This is real machonite, you know. Worth a few grotzits today, Your Honour," Glitz said to the Inquisitor.

"Er, Glitz," said the Doctor, trying to get the conman's attention. But Glitz was not paying the slightest bit of attention.

"I could make you a fair offer on a job lot, do you a very good deal," continued Glitz, eager to make a quick bit of cash.

"Glitz!" persisted the Doctor, at last getting the crook's attention.

"What?" asked Glitz in irritation.

"You were sent here by the Master," stated the Doctor.

"Yeah, well, he's a business partner, so to speak," explained Glitz shiftily. "We've had a few nice little tickles together..."

"This court is not interested in your sordid business deals, Glitz," said the Doctor.

"Very good, Doctor. Keep him to the point," said the Inquisitor approvingly.

The Doctor resumed his questioning. "When we last met, you expressed interest in a box."

"Right?" asked Glitz, waiting for the real question the Doctor was coming to.

"What was in that box?"

"Well, I don't know. Scientific stuff, so he said," shrugged Glitz, gesturing to the Master. "Stuff the Sleepers have been nicking from the Matrix for years."

"The Matrix? My Matrix?" gasped the Keeper in disbelief, adding to his earlier shock that the Matrix had been infiltrated.

"Right," confirmed Glitz. "Well, it seems the Sleepers had found a way to break into the Matrix, and they were creaming off all this high-tech info to take back to Andromeda."

"But their main hideout was on Earth, wasn't it, huh?" said Peri, as she remembered the underground bunker that she and the Doctor had discovered on Ravalox.

"Of course. That was their cover, wasn't it?" said Glitz as though this was patently obvious. "They knew that the Time Lords eventually would trace the leak."

"He's lying, my lady!" snarled the Valeyard with an expression of rage.

"I don't think so, Stackyard! It all begins to make very good sense," the Doctor shouted back triumphantly.

"That's it, Doc! Now we're getting at the dirt," enthused Mel as she punched the air excitedly.

"Doc?" winced the Doctor, prompting an amused expression from Peri. He turned back to Glitz. "Carry on, Glitz. What happened next?"

"Well, eventually the Time Lords did suss out the leak," continued Glitz, "so they wanted to wipe out all the Sleepers, and they used this er, magno... Magno..."

"Magnotron?" completed the Doctor.

"That's it!" confirmed Glitz with a snap of his fingers.

The Doctor looked appalled. "But that can only be done by order of the High Council!"

"Of course, Doctor," confirmed the Master with a smile. "To protect their own secrets, they drew the Earth and its constellation billions of miles across space..."

"Causing the fireball which nearly destroyed the planet!" added the Doctor in disgust.

The Master shrugged. "Of little consequence in the High Council's planning. The robot recovery mission from Andromeda sped past Earth out into space. Gallifreyan secrets were saved, except that at the first intimation of the coming fireball, the Andromedans were able to set up a survival chamber for the Sleepers."

"So that's why Earth was renamed Ravalox," cried out the Doctor, his expression becoming more angry by the second. "That sanctimonious gang of hypocrites were covering their tracks!"

"Exactly!" said the Master, like a teacher whose star pupil had finally solved the equation set to him. "It takes time, Doctor, but eventually you get there."

"But that's barbaric!" exclaimed Peri, feeling almost as angry as the Doctor was. "They tried to destroy the whole Earth and all the people on it just for a load of secret documents?!"

"Well, there's a big market for scientific advances like those, Peri, at least so the Master said," explained Glitz, unable to see what all the fuss was about. "Worth a lot of grotzits."

The Doctor regarded the court with a look of utter rage. "In all my travellings throughout the universe I have battled against evil, against power-mad conspirators. I should have stayed here. The oldest civilisation, decadent, degenerate and rotten to the core. Ha! Power-mad conspirators, Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen, they're still in the nursery compared to us. Ten million years of absolute power, that's what it takes to be really corrupt!"

"Take it easy, Doc," said Mel consolingly. She was as upset at what the High Council had done as the Doctor and Peri were, but she knew the Doctor's outburst might not do him any favours regarding the trial's verdict.

The Inquisitor, likewise, tried in her own way to get the Doctor to calm down. "Doctor, these unseemly outbursts..." she began to rebuke.

"UNSEEMLY OUTBURSTS?!" bellowed the Doctor furiously. "If I hadn't visited Ravalox, as I then thought of it, the High Council would have kept this outrage carefully buried, as presumably they have for several centuries!"

"I must agree," said the Master quietly. "You have an endearing habit of blundering into these things, Doctor, and the High Council took full advantage of your blunder."

"Explain that," demanded the Inquisitor impatiently.

Once again, the Master directed his attention to the Valeyard. "They made a deal with the Valeyard, or as I've always known him, the Doctor, to adjust the evidence, in return for which he was promised the remainder of the Doctor's regenerations."

The Valeyard furiously sprung from his seat. "This is clearly..."

"Just a minute!" interrupted the Doctor, his look of anger giving way to one of pure shock. He stared at the Valeyard, trying to take in what the Master had just said.

"Did you call him... the Doctor?"


	4. Part Thirteen - Chapter 3

"There is some evil in all of us, Doctor, even you," said the Master, enjoying the stunned expression on his old enemy's face. "The Valeyard is a distillation of the darker sides of your nature, splintered away from you somewhere between your twelfth and final incarnations. He was brought into being by the High Council for the sole purpose of eliminating you. And may I say, you do not improve with age!"

For several long seconds, the Doctor looked aghast at the Valeyard, who in turn gave a cold countenance of pure hate. Then the Doctor finally brought himself to speak up, his voice quiet and full of turmoil regarding this discovery.

"Madam, this revelation should halt this trial immediately. Surely even Gallifreyan law must acknowledge that the same person cannot be both prosecutor and defendant."

Although she was also shocked by the reveal of the Valeyard's identity, the Inquisitor was not prepared to dismiss the whole inquiry at this point.

"The single purpose of this trial is to determine the defendant's guilt or otherwise on the basis of the evidence that has been presented. Anything else is, for the moment, irrelevant!" she said stubbornly.

"What?!" exclaimed the Doctor at her. And in that moment, the Valeyard took advantage of the distraction and swifty edged his way across the courtroom, before dashing right behind the Doctor towards the main entrance.

Mel was the first to spot the Valeyard's fleeing figure. "Doctor!" she yelled and everyone whirled to see the Valeyard dash out of the courtroom and into the reception area.

"Valeyard!" cried out the Inquisitor, as the Doctor began to dash after his prosecutor.

"Glitz, come on! We need him!" shouted the Doctor.

Somewhat reluctantly, Glitz followed, but by the time they had all charged out of the courtroom, there was no sign of the Valeyard anywhere in reception.

Glitz looked around the room in bewilderment. "He's gone! But he hasn't had time to duck out of here."

"There must be another way out of here," said the Doctor as he began to check the walls for a hidden passage. By this point, Peri, Mel, the Inquisitor and the Keeper had all gathered by the alcove of the courtroom entrance.

"Oh come on, Doctor, you're not seriously expecting to find an old secret passage are you?" said Peri sarcastically. "This is a space station, not a medieval castle!"

"But there is a hidden passage!" exclaimed the Keeper, his eyes flashing with realisation. "The seventh door. He must have had a key."

"What?" asked the Doctor, wondering what the Keeper was talking about.

"The seventh entrance to the Matrix," explained the Keeper as he made his way over to what looked like a lit-up stained glass window, set in one corner of the room.

"Well, quickly, man, open it! He must be brought back," said the Doctor urgently.

"I agree," said the Inquisitor, deciding that the Valeyard had much to explain regarding the Master's allegations.

Hurriedly, the Keeper inserted his copy of the Key of Rassilon into a access panel placed next to the window. Seconds later, the stained-glass slid open to reveal a glowing white void inside, the passageway into the Matrix itself.

"You'll never find him," protested the Keeper, all too aware of the dangers that lurked within. "The Matrix is a micro-universe."

"Don't go, Doctor," said Mel worriedly as she and Peri came across to join them.

"I must," said the Doctor seriously. "Perhaps nothing in my life has ever been so important. Come on, Glitz."

"What, me?" protested Glitz as the Doctor grabbed him by the arm and they both plunged into the dazzling white void, disappearing from sight altogether.

"Doctor, wait!" Peri fruitlessly called out after them, the light from the Matrix door causing a sheen to be reflected on her bald skull.

"Be silent!" commanded the Inquisitor. "Come, let us return to the trial room."

Mel looked at the Inquisitor in disbelief. "Why? There's nobody to try anymore."

"Come along, all of you," said the Inquisitor firmly, before storming back into the Courtroom, the Keeper following closely behind once he had closed the Matrix door. Looking back at the Matrix door, Peri and Mel exchanged worried glances before they too reluctantly re-entered the trial room.

* * *

"Oh! Oh, what an unpleasant journey. And what an unpleasant place," complained the Doctor as he took in his surroundings.

After dashing through the Matrix door, the Doctor had found himself being transported down a fierce beam of white light, before being unceremoniously deposited into what appeared to be the alleyway of a Victorian courtyard, littered with hay, refuse and noisy rats that scuttled hungrily about on the ground. The place was in near darkness, with a few burning oil lamps giving a bit of dim light to the bleak surroundings, while the sound of a tolling bell echoed forebodingly about the old-looking buildings, mingled with the sounds of unseen horses and someone calling out in the distance. There was a sense of dread about the decaying setting, as though some great and unpleasant force was at work.

As the Doctor looked around the unattractive streets, he suddenly realised that he was quite alone.

"Glitz? Glitz?" he called. But the only response that came was the malicious sound of the Valeyard's laughter, echoing like the bell from all directions. Steeling his resolve, the Doctor began moving cautiously down around the courtyard, the sound of the Valeyard's laughter giving way first to the chorus of children singing 'London Bridge is falling down', and then to the noise of what sounded like a music hall, a ragtime-like theme played on a piano mixed with the jeering sound of people laughing.

Quickening his pace, the Doctor dashed into a large open area, but despite all the noise, there was no sign of anyone. The whole place was deserted. No piano player, no singing children, no Sabalom Glitz, and more importantly, no Valeyard, whose mocking laughter still reverberated about the courtyard.

Waving his arms about in frustration, the Doctor spotted a wooden barrel and crossed over to it. Peering over, he could see the barrel was filled to the top with water.

"Well, I can't believe you're in there," remarked the Doctor as he leaned in closer to examine the surface of the water.

Suddenly, a pair of hands broke through the water and grabbed the startled Time Lord's head, before starting to pull his face into the water-filled barrel!

"Glitz! Help!" the Doctor managed to yell out, before the hands forced his face into the water...

Back in the alleyway where the Doctor had first arrived, the transportation beam appeared again and Glitz abruptly materialised in the Victorian courtyard. As he tried to get his bearings, he heard the Doctor's cries for help and swiftly dashed over to the main courtyard. There he found the Doctor sprawled out on the cobbled ground, trying to get his breath back, as though someone had just tried to throttle him.

"What's going on?" asked Glitz as he helped the Time Lord to sit up against a nearby water barrel.

"Oh, I don't know," the Doctor managed to splutter. "I don't know whether what just happened to me was real or an illusion."

"Looks like someone's had a go at you," commented Glitz, as he moved to pick up some water from the barrel.

The Doctor ran a hand through his mass of curly hair, surprised to find that it was completely dry. "We're not in the real world any longer, Sabalom Glitz. Whatever attacked me was in that barrel. Or was it in my mind?"

Glitz leapt away from the barrel in alarm. "How can we be in a different world? We just stepped through a door, that's all."

"Into the Matrix," pointed out the Doctor, as he got unsteadily back to his feet, "where the only logic is that there isn't any logic. In this place, illusions can be just as deadly as the real thing."

"Yeah, I knew this was a mistake," muttered Glitz, pulling a small sheet of paper out from his pockets. "My grip on reality's not too good at the best of times."

He thrust the note into the Doctor's hand. "Here, this is for you. Now, if you don't mind telling me, how do I get out of here?"

The Doctor read the note and a surprised expression appeared on his face. "It's from the Master."

"I know. I've just given it to you," said Glitz caustically. "He said it would be useful."

Ignoring Glitz's snarky attitude, the Doctor read the note carefully. "It tells me where the Valeyard has his base," he said at last.

Glitz leaned in to read the note himself, his curiosity getting the better of him. "The Fantasy Factory, proprietor J.J. Chambers," he read out-loud.

At that moment, the whole courtyard lit up and the two men looked up to see a large illuminated carnival-style sign placed at the top of the nearest building in front of them, with a hundred or so colourful fairy-lights making up the logo that read 'THE FANTASY FACTORY'. The lights flashed in a fancy manner, adding cheerful colour to the otherwise drab streets. Below the display was a balcony and a flight of stairs that connected the ground to the main door on the second floor.

"So that's where he got to," said the Doctor, as he began to move towards the building. "So why is the Master helping me?"

"Yeah, well, I'm sure you'll find out. I'm off," said Glitz, all too keen to get as far away from this godforsaken place as possible. He was just turning to head back towards the alleyway where he had first arrived, hoping that the exit would also be there, when the Doctor suddenly took hold of him by the sleeve.

"No, come on. I want you to meet my darker side," said the Doctor with a mischievous grin on his face.

"I've done my bit!" protested Glitz.

"Just pop in and say hello. You'll be perfectly safe," replied the Doctor with a reassuring smile.

That was when the main door of the building's second floor suddenly burst wide open and a volley of deadly arrows shot out, all of them striking Sabalom Glitz right in the chest! With an anguished cry, the conman collapsed to the ground...


	5. Part Thirteen - Chapter 4

Back in the courtroom, everyone was busy comparing notes, trying to make sense of all that was going on. All that had been established so far was that Peri had been snatched up just a few days after the events on Thoros Beta, while Mel had been plucked from the Doctor's own future, shortly after the terrifying incident with the Vervoids. The two girls had placed themselves in the dock which the Doctor had to occupy and they were both furious that their mutual friend had been forced to go through an unfair show-trial so that the real criminals could get off the hook. They were also worried for his safety now that he was having to fight for his life in the Matrix.

"Isn't there anything we can do to help?" asked Mel fretfully.

On the Matrix screen, the Master simply smiled and shrugged casually. "Remain calm. Concentrate your thoughts. Prepare for the worst."

"Huh! Sounds a bit gloomy if you ask me," retorted Peri, still suspicious as to why the Master was apparently so eager to aid the Doctor.

"You have any other suggestions, my dear Miss Brown?" responded the Master, raising an eyebrow.

The Inquisitor frowned at the Master. "Assuming I accept what you say about the evidence against the Doctor, how much of it had been contrived?" she demanded, determined to get to the truth once and for all.

"For a lie to work, madam, it must be shrouded in truth," answered the Master. "Therefore most of what you saw was true."

A horrible thought suddenly occurred to Peri. "Hang on a sec, which kind of evidence was phony?" she asked, remembering the Doctor's relieved reaction at seeing her and the Valeyard's subsequent assertion that she was the vile Mentor Kiv.

"Oh, nothing major," said the Master innocently with an evil smile. "Just sequences like the Doctor betraying you on Thoros Beta and leaving you to have your mind replaced by that of the Lord Kiv. All of which culminated in that delicious scene where that warmongering fool Yrcanos gunned you down."

Peri was visibly shocked. "WHAT?! But that's not what happened at all!"

"Does the witness refute the evidence that had been displayed on the Matrix?" asked the Inquisitor formally.

"Of course she refutes it!" retorted Mel. "Isn't her being here at all enough to show that your so-called evidence was faked?"

"This court requires a statement for the record as to the true events that occurred," said the Inquisitor crisply.

"Oh yeah?" said Peri dryly. "Well, if you must know, the Doctor and I got separated after King Yrcanos messed up his attack on the induction centre. From what I heard later on, the Doctor was made to help Crozier under duress, but he was later able to help free Yrcanos and the other slaves from the Mentors' mind control implants."

"And the mind transfer experiment? Do you claim that did not take place at all?"

Peri shuddered at the memory. "Well, yeah, I was forcibly prepared for the surgery, but for some reason, Kiv didn't turn up at the lab and Yrcanos was able to rescue me in time."

"If I may clarify," said the Master. "The Lord Kiv's meeting with the Posicarian delegate took much longer than anticipated and as a result, Yrcanos was just able to reach the laboratory first. Quite a _close shave_, wouldn't you agree?"

Peri glowered fiercely at the Master regarding that last remark. The forced shaving of her head had been considerably distressing and her now bald skull was a constant and unpleasant reminder of her traumatic experience and just how close she had come to suffering a fate far worse than death. However, since her hair currently showed no signs of growing back, she had decided she would have to learn to cope with her baldness and just be grateful that she was still alive and had her own mind still intact.

"Yes, that was clever of the Valeyard, exploiting the affection the Doctor had for you, my dear," continued the Master. "But then, of course, the Valeyard would know precisely how the Doctor felt."

"Then the evidence in that instance was incorrect. I am pleased," said the Inquisitor sincerely, remembering how distressed the Doctor had been at seeing the footage depicting Peri's apparent demise.

The Master gave another cold chuckle. "Sentiment will not keep the Doctor alive, my lady. At this very moment, he and Sabalom Glitz are about to walk into the lion's den, so to speak."

* * *

"You'll catch cold lying there," said the Doctor as he paced around Glitz who was still lying still on his back on the paved ground, his chest full of arrows, but with no blood showing. Unfazed, Glitz opened his eyes and glowered at the Doctor.

"You're a hard man, Doctor. I could have been killed!" grunted Glitz.

"Not when you're wearing a mark seven postidion life preserver," pointed out the Doctor as he pulled one arrow out of the protective vest that had just saved Glitz's life.

"Yeah, well, whoever let off those arrows didn't know that," complained Glitz as he got to his feet and began to pull the arrows out of his life preserver. "So much for illusions. Anyway, I thought it was you he was trying to kill."

"Yes, he's playing games. Wants to humiliate me first," replied the Doctor as he looked around, apparently expecting to see his opponent eavesdropping nearby.

"Oh, I see," said Glitz sarcastically. "He humiliates you by turning me into a human pin cushion! Makes a lot of sense."

"Your presence here makes his task more difficult. He knows that. He also knows that together we can fight him."

Glitz was clearly not keen on this idea. "Look, Doctor, I'm a small-time crook with small-time ambitions, one of which is to stay alive. I'm sorry, Doctor. I wish you every good luck, but I'm on my way. I've done my bit."

He was just turning to leave, but the Doctor's next words stopped him dead in his tracks.

"If you leave and I die, what future do you think you'll have? As the only witness to events here, the Valeyard will be forced to seek you out and kill you."

Glitz gave a nervous gulp. For a self-centred coward like him, the prospect of having to spend the rest of his life on the run from some murderous psychopath was even less desirable than having to spend another minute in this nightmare world.

"All right, I'll help you," he said at last.

The Doctor smiled. "Good man. Now, button your life preserver and let's get on with it."

And with that, they made their way to the entrance of the Fantasy Factory, where stranger and even deadlier dangers awaited them.

* * *

"In all my experience, I have never before had to conclude a case in the absence of both the accused and the prosecutor!" fumed the Inquisitor, still feeling irate at the way the trial had been completely disrupted and the increasing likelihood that she would have to hold another inquiry, this time looking into the Valeyard's activities!

"One and the same person, madam," pointed out the Master.

"So you've said, but can you prove that?"

"I know them both," shrugged the Master. "But I suggest you question the High Council. They set up this travesty of a trial, making a scapegoat of the Doctor to conceal their own involvement."

"Is there any reason why I should accept that allegation from a renegade Time Lord?" asked the Inquisitor coldly.

"Yes, if you're as concerned with learning the truth as you claim," said the Master.

"Then explain to the court why the Valeyard opted to use the events on Ravalox as part of his evidence, if the High Council were so keen to cover up their involvement in the incident?"

"A laughable double-bluff on the High Council's part," explained the Master. "By being the first to draw attention to that episode, they could reinforce the pretence that they had nothing to hide."

Peri gave the Master another incredulous look. "What I don't get is what you hope to gain out of all this. You're not seriously expecting us to believe you're now worried for the Doctor's safety, are you?"

"Oh, indeed not, Miss Brown," confirmed the Master. "The Doctor's well matched against himself. One must destroy the other."

"How utterly evil!" said Mel in disgust.

The Master seemed flattered by this. "Thank you. I think I'd lay a shade more odds on the Valeyard, though the possibility of their mutual destruction must exist. That would be perfect."

"You're despicable!" exclaimed Mel, her face becoming as red as her curls.

"So many compliments. May I say, you're a charming child," said the Master pleasantly.

"You beast!" added Mel, becoming more angry by the second.

Peri put a comforting hand on Mel's shoulder. "Oh, don't bother, you're only encouraging him. He loves getting under people's skins like that."

The Inquisitor regarded the Master with a disapproving expression. "Am I to take it that some base desire for revenge is your motive for interfering?"

The smile on the Master's face grew even more sinister than before, like a crocodile ready to eat them all up, and he gave another hollow chuckle.

"There's nothing purer and more unsullied, madam, than the desire for revenge. But, if you follow the metaphor, I've thrown a pebble into the water, perhaps killing two birds with one stone, and causing ripples that'll rock the High Council to its foundations! What more could a renegade wish for?"


	6. Part Thirteen - Chapter 5

Upon entering the Fantasy Factory, the Doctor and Glitz had braced themselves to find some terrible and hideous danger waiting for them. They were thus a little surprised to find themselves in what appeared to be an ordinary Victorian office with old wooden filing cabinets propped against the walls and shelfs holding up piles of dusty books and paper work. In one corner of the room was another door, while in the centre of the office was a rectangular oak desk, upon which was a large oil lamp which gave a bit of dim light to the otherwise shadowy room. Sitting at the desk was a middle-aged round-faced man dressed in the attire of a Victorian clerk, busy scribbling away with a quill pen on some documents laid out on the desk. In fact, so engrossed was he in his work, he did not seem to notice the Doctor and Glitz, who came over and stood by the desk.

"How do you do? I think we're expected," announced the Doctor. But the man at the desk did not seem to hear the Doctor at all and simply continued with his writings.

Glitz gave the Doctor a doubtful look. "Are you sure we're in the right place?"

The Doctor deferred from responding. Instead, he waved his finger in the air, before hitting the push-button of a small silver bell that sat on the desk. The bell gave a loud ding and, like a machine, the clerk automatically looked up at the two men standing before him.

"Good evening, gentlemen," said the clerk simply. "My name is Popplewick. May I ask your business here?"

"We'd like to see the proprietor, please," said the Doctor with a friendly smile.

"Do you have an appointment, sir?" asked Popplewick quietly. "Mister Chambers only sees people by appointment. Most particular about appointments is our Mister Chambers."

"I think you'll find we're expected," replied the Doctor confidently.

"What is your name, sir?"

"I am known as the Doctor, and this is Mister Sabalom Glitz," said the Doctor, gesturing to Glitz, who gave another of his chivalrous bows.

Popplewick did not seem at all impressed and simply began to check through the list of appointments in his book.

"If this Valeyard wants you dead, he's got a funny way of going about it," muttered Gliz to the Doctor.

"I've told you. It's called humiliation," said the Doctor wearily, before turning back to Popplewick, who was still checking through the list in his book. "Could you hurry up, please? We haven't got all day."

"There are procedures to follow, sir," explained Popplewick in an unhurriedly tone of voice. "Necessary routines to be completed. Even when I've found your names, there are many forms to be inscribed before you may move on to the next stage of processing. Processing is very important in this establishment. I'm sure that even you will understand that such things cannot be rushed, sir."

The Doctor gave another calm smile. "Oh, I don't know. I've always been a bit of an iconoclast by nature."

And before anyone could stop him, he whirled around and pulled open the door that led to the next room.

"You can't go in there, not without an appointment!" protested Popplewick.

But the Doctor and Glitz ignored the clerk and leapt into the next room... only to find themselves in another office, facing another Popplewick sitting at his desk!

"Ah, Doctor," greeted the second Popplewick almost smugly, his appearance identical in every way to the first clerk, save for the circular metal-rimmed spectacles perched at the end of his nose.

Astonished, the Doctor and Glitz looked back through the doorway into the first office from which they came, where the first Popplewick was still there, sitting at his own desk and returning to his work. Then they stared incredulously at the second Popplewick waiting for them.

"Well, at least you're expecting us," said the Doctor as he and Glitz stepped into the second office and closed the door behind them.

"We all are," said the second Popplewick calmly.

"Your lookalike out there wasn't," said Glitz, his expression being one of utter confusion.

"He is the exception. The very junior Mister Popplewick isn't permitted to expect anyone," explained Mr Popplewick senior as he got up from his desk and balanced his quill between his right ear and the rim of his glasses.

Glitz looked at the Doctor for an explanation. "What's he talking about?"

"I think it's called bureaucracy," sighed the Doctor.

"I prefer to call it order," retorted Mr Popplewick, "and the holy writ of order is procedure. I'm sure you agree."

"Oh, yeah, of course." said Glitz with yet another confused smile.

"For example," continued Popplewick with a wag of his finger, "you wish to see the proprietor. Now, the correct procedure is to make an appointment."

"But we're already expected," pointed out the Doctor with a frown.

"But the junior Mister Popplewick isn't allowed to expect anyone," countered Mr Popplewick senior sharply.

"You knew we were coming. Why didn't you give him the nod?" asked Glitz.

The second Mr Popplewick looked positively outraged at this very suggestion. "And upset the procedure?! The junior Mister Popplewick has his pride too," he exclaimed.

Glitz could not believe what he was hearing. "I don't understand any of this. Here we are, waiting to duck a terminal knuckle sandwich, and all this screeve's going on about is whether we've got an appointment or not!" he said to the Doctor in frustration.

"Is there no way to expedite the procedure?" the Doctor asked Popplewick tactfully.

Popplewick gave an expression like someone who had found that some salt had been put in his tea.

"Expedite?! I am a senior clerk, sir. To me, the procedure is sacrosanct. My work is a celebration of all that is perfect. Why speed perfection?"

"Because your employer wants me dead," said the Doctor simply.

For a moment Mr Popplewick gaped at the Doctor. Then he dejectedly sat back down at his desk and picked up a sheet of paper.

"You seem to have found the one little weakness in our procedure, sir," he sighed, handing the Doctor the parchment in his hand. "Would you sign this?"

"What is it?" asked the Doctor, eying the paper suspiciously.

"A consent form, sir," explained Popplewick. "The corridors in this factory are very long and dark. Should you unexpectedly die, our blessed proprietor, Mister J.J. Chambers, insists he inherits your remaining lives."

"Obviously the Valeyard doesn't trust the High Council to honour their side of the bargain," remarked the Doctor dryly. He began to reach for the quill balanced on Popplewick's ear, but the clerk brushed off the Time Lord's hand and simply handed over another quill pen from his desk. The Doctor accepted the quill with a friendly smile and proceeded to dip the pen in the desk's inkwell in order to write his signature on the parchment.

"Sign that and you're a dead man!" warned Glitz in alarm.

"We're in the Valeyard's domain. He can try and kill me any time he likes," pointed out the Doctor as he signed his name on the form. "I'll sign my remaining lives away to Mister J.J. Chambers."

Glitz could not believe the Doctor's recklessness and he stared wide-eyed as the Time Lord tossed the signed form onto Popplewick's desk.

"Are you sure about this?" Glitz said again, considerably worried that if the Doctor got bumped off, he would be next!

"Absolutely," said the Doctor confidently as he turned to look at Popplewick, who was studying the signature thoroughly. "Now can we see your proprietor?"

Without even looking up, Popplewick gestured to another door in the corner. "The waiting room is through there. You will be summoned as soon as your signature has been verified."

The Doctor began heading for the door and was about to grasp the handle, when Glitz tried to pull him back.

"This is madness!" protested the conman again, not at all keen at the idea of walking into the lion's jaws.

"Not if it precipitates my meeting with the Valeyard!" insisted the Doctor. He pulled the door open, stepped through...

And found himself in the middle of a desolate desert!

"This is a very odd waiting room," remarked the Doctor as he took in his surroundings. All around him were sand dunes of various sizes, with no sign of civilisation or visible horizon whatsoever. Despite the fact that the sky was clear with no clouds at all, there was a definite wind blowing around, making loud whistling noises about the barren landscape.

The Doctor tutted to himself. "Where are the hopelessly out of date magazines? Hmm? Glitz? Glitz?"

But Glitz was not there. As the Doctor whirled around, he realised that the door through which he had just stepped through had vanished. He was quite alone...

Except for a cold and sinister laugh that echoed all around him, just like it had done back in the courtyard. The evil laugh of the Valeyard.

"What have you done with Glitz?" demanded the Doctor, looking up at the sky, trying to ascertain the direction that the evil laugh came from.

"Look to your own predicament, Doctor," came the evil voice again. The Doctor looked down at his feet, in time to see a withered and decaying hand emerge out of the sand and grab his right ankle!

"This is an illusion! I deny it!" declared the Doctor. But no sooner did he say this, than another hand emerged on the other side of him and grabbed his left ankle.

"Not this time," came the Valeyard's voice again as still more undead hands emerged and began grabbing the Doctor, trying to pull him down.

"This isn't happening!" the Doctor stated again as he tried to pull himself free. But as more and more grisly hands came out of the sand and grabbed him, he lost his balance and fell backwards onto the grainy ground, which seemed to be rapidly liquifying into quicksand, pulling him under. The Doctor desperately tried to pull himself free, but the hands around him were now able to get hold of him completely and began pulling him under...

"You are dead, Doctor," laughed the Valeyard's voice. "Goodbye, forever! Bwahahahahahaha!"


	7. Part Fourteen - Chapter 1

"No!" cried out the Doctor as he fought against the grip of the hands pulling him into the quicksand. "Kill me and you'll never gain my remaining regenerations!"

The cold chuckle of the Valeyard resounded around him. "But you've already signed them away."

"To J.J. Chambers, not to you," pointed out the Doctor.

"The sake of this charade, I am J.J. Chambers," derided the Valeyard. "I thought you understood. You are in a world entirely of my making!"

"Then I deny your world!" shouted the Doctor defiantly as he was pulled deeper and deeper into the sand.

Suddenly, another voice, a _real_ voice, called out from one of the nearest dunes.

"Doctor! Hang on!"

Astonished, the Doctor turned his head to see a panicking Sabalom Glitz charging hastily down the dune towards him.

"Don't give in! I'm coming!" shouted Glitz as he hurried over. Reaching the edge of the quicksand, he grabbed hold of the Doctor's nearest outstretched hand and began to pull the Time Lord out, taking care not to get grabbed himself by the undead hands in the process. The hands had a strong grip, but with a tremendous heave, Glitz was able to pull the Doctor free of their grasp and out of the quicksand.

"Thank you, Glitz," breathed the Doctor, "though it would have been nice if you got here a bit sooner."

"Yeah, well when I went through after you, I found myself on the other side of that dune there," explained Glitz as he tried to brush some of the boggy sand off his hands. "Cor, I didn't realise illusions could be so messy."

But no sooner did he say this, than all the muck on his hands and the Doctor's clothes suddenly vanished, leaving no trace of the Doctor's quicksand ordeal.

"Eh? I don't get it. Where did all that mud go?" exclaimed Glitz.

"Oh, it was just another of the Valeyard's illusions," clarified the Doctor wearily. "Albeit a realistic and deadly one. Remember, we're not dealing with reality here."

As if on cue, the Valeyard suddenly appeared out of thin air, a few feet away from them, his robes fluttering in the howling wind.

"Why waste your breath on that simple minded oaf?" sneered the Valeyard, before he suddenly vanished again and just as quickly reappeared next to a startled Glitz. "You cannot speak as though reality is a one-dimensional concept."

Again, the Valeyard vanished, re-materialising right next to the Doctor, who looked quite unfazed by his opponent's vanishing trick.

"Fortunately, there is a reality that you and I can both agree on. The ultimate reality," continued the Valeyard.

"Death?" replied the Doctor calmly.

The Valeyard nodded. "'The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns.'"

"'Puzzles the will'. Hamlet, act three, scene one," added the Doctor, completing the quotation.

With a disdainful look, the Valeyard vanished again and reappeared on the other side of the Doctor. "I really must curb these urges. I've no wish to be contaminated by your whims and idiosyncrasies," the evil Time Lord muttered in annoyance.

"Quite so," said the Doctor. "But what I don't comprehend..."

But the Valeyard suddenly disappeared before he got a chance to complete his sentence.

"He's over here, Doc," said Glitz in amusement as he pointed to the Valeyard's new position. "Slippery customer, your other persona."

The Doctor turned again to face the Valeyard. "What I don't comprehend is why you want me dead. No. No, let me rephrase that. It would satisfy my curiosity to know why you should go to such extraordinary lengths to kill me."

"To ensure my survival," said the Valeyard simply.

For a moment, the Doctor looked puzzled by this, but then his face cleared as realisation sank in.

"Oh, of course. The Master suggested that you were or will be splintered away from me during my final regeneration. If that's true, then that means you have no regenerations of your own, do you? You have only one life remaining to you, so you need to take another Time Lord's regenerations for your own. And to ensure a successful transfer of regenerative energy, you need to siphon off that energy from a Time Lord whose genetic code matches your own. In simpler terms, you can only get it from me!"

"Exactly, Doctor," confirmed the Valeyard as he vanished again and kept appearing and re-appearing on various parts of the sand dunes around them. "How else can I obtain my freedom, operate as a complete entity, unfettered by your side of my existence? Only by ridding myself of you and your misplaced morality, your constant crusading, your..."

"Idiotic honesty?" suggested Glitz helpfully.

The Valeyard re-materialised next to the conman and shot him a contemptuous look. "Oaf! Microbe!"

Glitz gave a hurt expression. "Pardon me for trying to help. I'm neutral in this set-up, you know."

Ignoring the petty crook, the Valeyard turned to face the Doctor again. "Only by releasing myself from the misguided maxims that you nurture can I be free."

Glitz gulped as the Valeyard vanished again. "Sounds to me like Armageddon's beckoning you, Doc."

The Valeyard materialised again right behind the Doctor, a vicious expression plastered all over his face. "With you destroyed and no longer able to constrain me, and with unlimited access to the Matrix, there will be nothing beyond my reach."

With a final sneer, the Valeyard faded into thin air and this time, he did not re-appear, leaving behind an aura of doom about the surroundings...


	8. Part Fourteen - Chapter 2

As Glitz tried to take all that had happened in, the Doctor began striding swiftly across the sandy landscape.

"Where are you off to now?" asked Glitz as he moved to catch up with the Doctor.

"To trace the Valeyard."

"But he was right here."

"Illusion, Glitz!" snapped the Doctor in frustration. "The shadow, not the substance. But if you don't want to come, you can stay here and build sandcastles. I'm sure if you think hard enough, you can conjure up a bucket and spade."

Glitz gave the Doctor a serious look. "Tell you something. If you two meet face to face, five grotzits gives you ten he's first past the chequered flag."

But the Doctor simply ignored him and carried on. Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, the whole setting changed around them. Gone were the large sand dunes, replaced by a series of alleyways made up of old wharfs and the crumbling brickwork of warehouses, with an air of dampness and rot about the place.

"Ere, now what's happening?" spluttered Glitz feeling more confused by the second.

"Well, if I'm not much mistaken, this is supposed to be a representation of London, near the River Thames," mused the Doctor as he took in the new setting. "You know, this looks similar to a place I visited in my last incarnation."

Glitz shook his head dispiritingly and shot a gloomy look up at the sky. As he did so, he spotted something moving along one of the walkways. It seemed to be the shape of a bald-headed man, but its skin seemed to be smooth and shiny, like something out of a waxwork museum. The figure spotted them, raised a hand towards them, and before Glitz's astonished eyes, the hand dropped away on a hidden hinged joint, revealing a tube-like nozzle that emerged from a hole in the wrist.

"Gah, look out!" exclaimed Glitz as he shoved the Doctor aside, just as a energy bolt shot out from the nozzle of the figure's wrist-gun and blasted a huge hole in the spot where the Doctor had just been standing a second ago. A little startled, the Doctor looked up at their assailant.

"An Auton!" he exclaimed. "Quick, let's get under cover!"

The two men darted down another alley, dodging laser bolt after laser bolt from the Auton above them. As they took cover behind an archway, Glitz could hear a series of clanging noises and to his horror, he saw a number of manhole covers bursting open from the path next to them. Through the now-open sewer holes, several silver robotic figures began to clamber out and advance menacingly towards them.

"Oh great, those are Zyber-Men, aren't they?" groaned Glitz. "Now what are we going to do?"

The Doctor pointed towards one of the nearest warehouses. "Quick, let's take cover in there!"

They ran for the wooden doors of the warehouse, with the Cybermen in hot pursuit, raising their weapons and firing after the two fugitives. One blast narrowly missed Glitz's head and he yelped in alarm, before he and the Doctor darted into the warehouse and slammed the door shut behind them.

"Th-this is ju-just an illusion, isn't it?" stammered Glitz as the Doctor locked the door. "They c-can't actually hurt us, can they?"

"Alas, I'm afraid they can," said the Doctor solemnly as he finished bolting the door. "This is in deadly earnest."

No sooner did he say this, than a metal fist smashed through the old wood of the door and began groping around to get a handhold on its prey.

"Quick, run!" shouted the Doctor, as he and Glitz darted up a nearby flight of stairs, as the door began to buckle beneath the sheer strength of the Cybermen.

* * *

At that moment, the Doctor and Glitz's flight was being displayed on the matrix screen in the courtroom, where the Doctor's companions, along with the rest of the court, looked on in appalled fascination.

"We can't just sit here and do nothing," protested Peri. "We've got to help them!"

Mel turned to face the Inquisitor, an accusing look on her face. "You got the Doctor into this mess. You've got to get him out of there!"

The Inquisitor shook her head. "The Doctor chose to enter the Matrix. We are not empowered to interfere."

The Keeper nodded in agreement. "You are applying logical thought to a situation that recognises no logic," he stated to Mel.

"Oh, to heck with logic!" snapped Peri angrily. "If you lot won't go in there to help, then I will!"

She began to dart towards the Matrix door in the reception area, but the Keeper simply stuck out his foot and tripped her up, sending her crashing to the floor.

* * *

Back in the warehouse, the Doctor and Glitz had darted into a deserted room on the upper-level, slamming the door shut and pulling some crates over to blockade the entrance.

"Well, hopefully that should keep them out for a bit," said the Doctor not very convincingly as the sound of hammering could be heard from the other side.

"Yeah, but we can't get out either," muttered Glitz, noting that there was no other exit to the large, dark room. "Where are all these nasties coming from anyway?"

"From my own past, I'm afraid," said the Doctor. "The Valeyard is bringing up projections of some of my deadliest enemies in order to kill us."

Abruptly, the hammering on the other side of the door stopped and Glitz let out a sigh of relief. "Phew, looks like they've given up."

"I doubt it," retorted the Doctor doubtfully. "They wouldn't let the simple matter of a blocked door get in their way."

"Well, what do you suppose they're up to then?" asked Glitz apprehensively.

The answer came in the form of a loud hum from behind them. As the two men turned to face the far wall on the other side of the room, they saw a pulsing beam of light. Inside this beam, a robotic-looking creature materialised, cream and gold in colour, with a mechanical eyestalk mounted on its dome, while on the front of its midsection was a telescopic manipulator arm and a short stubby gunstick, which was pointed directly at the Doctor and Glitz.

"STAY WHERE YOU ARE!" grated the Dalek in the same monotone voice that the Doctor knew all too well. "DO NOT MOVE!"

"Oh great, now what do we do?" asked Glitz in terror.

"Scatter!" exclaimed the Doctor, leaping over to take cover behind a concrete pillar. The Dalek swerved and fired a deadly energy beam from its gun, narrowly missing the Doctor as he disappeared from sight behind the concrete block. Taking advantage of the Dalek being distracted, Glitz darted across the room, taking cover behind some more crates. The Dalek began to swerve from one side to the other, trying to catch sight of either of its two targets.

"SURRENDER OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED," demanded the Dalek. "YOU CANNOT ESCAPE THE POWER OF THE DALEKS."

From his hiding place, a terrified Glitz clapped his hands together and cast his eyes upwards as if in prayer. "Oh, great cosmic protector of grafters and dissemblers, save me! Save me! I'm about to be blasted by a deadly motorised dustbin sent from the depths of hell itself!"

As if to answer Glitz's desperate pleas, a large stone pillar suddenly materialised in the centre of the room, accompanied by the wheezing noise of a TARDIS materialising. The Dalek swung around in time to see a hidden door set into the pillar swing inwards and through the now-open doorway, to the astonishment of everyone present, emerged the Master.

"EXTERMINATE!" screeched the Dalek, firing its energy weapon at the new intruder. But the Master swiftly ducked out of the way of the energy beam and drew out his own deadly weapon, a torch-like device known as a Tissue Compression Eliminator, capable of excessively reducing the bodies of its intended victims to the size of small dolls, killing them almost instantly. Before the Dalek had a chance to defend itself, the Master fired his weapon and an intense streak of red light shot out, hitting the Dalek at point-blank range. Within the blink of an eye, the Dalek had been compressed into the size of a toy and it lay lifeless on the floor.

Chuckling to himself, the Master addressed the incredulous looks of the Doctor and Glitz. "I suggest you two come with me, that is if you wish to keep breathing."

As the warehouse door began to buckle and splinter from the assault of the Cybermen, the Doctor and Glitz hurriedly followed the Master into the relative safety of his TARDIS. The stone column promptly faded away, just as the wooden doors finally broke open and the Cybermen strode in, just seconds too late to catch their intended prey.


	9. Part Fourteen - Chapter 3

Inside the darkened control room of the Master's TARDIS, the Doctor and Glitz paused to get their breath back as the Master regarded them with amusement.

"Well I never thought I'd welcome the sight of you," said the Doctor at last.

"It will not happen again," promised the Master.

"What puzzles me is why it's happening now," continued the Doctor, regarding his old enemy with understandable suspicion, thinking back to all the times that the Master had attempted to eliminate him.

"The explanation's quite simple," said the Master in a noticeably more serious tone. "I want the Valeyard eliminated, and you're the most likely candidate to achieve that."

Now Glitz was really confused. "Hang on. You told me this fleshy fair-haired personage was the one you wanted to croak," he said to the Master, prompting a hurt expression from the Doctor.

"With the Doctor as my enemy, I always have the advantage," explained the Master, to which the Doctor gave a scoffing laugh. "But the Valeyard, the distillation of all that's evil in the Doctor himself, untainted by virtue, a composite of his every dark thought, is a different proposition."

The Master turned to look at the Doctor directly, his expression becoming colder and more menacing. "Additionally, he's infuriated me by threatening to deny me the pleasure of personally bringing about your destruction. And so he must pay the price."

The Doctor regarded his old foe wearily, not in the least surprised that wounded pride was the Master's prime motive in disrupting the Valeyard's carefully laid plans. However, the Doctor also had an uncanny feeling that there was something else the Master hoped to gain from all this, perhaps from exposing the High Council's part in the Ravalox conspiracy. But before the Doctor could inquire any further, the Master pressed a button on the control console and swiftly led Glitz out through a door leading to the rest of the TARDIS interior, as a high-pitched pulsing sound began to resonate in the control room.

"And you, Glitz, shall help me to collect," said the Master as he sealed the door, locking the Doctor in, as the pulsing sound in the the console room got louder and louder and a barrage of colourful lights began to flash dazzlingly around the Doctor. As the Doctor whirled around for the source of the blinding lights, he had to clamp his hands over his ears as the unrelenting noise became more unbearable by the second. He gave out a loud cry of pain, but it was drowned out by the pounding pulses assaulting his senses.

In the adjoining room, Glitz peered through the transparent porthole overlooking the console room and saw the Doctor abruptly drop his arms and stand absolutely rigid, his expression turning utterly blank.

"Would I be wrong in thinking that the Doctor will soon be needing a machonite overcoat?" inquired Glitz.

The Master gave yet another of his customary cold chuckles. "Nothing so crude. He's merely being reduced to a catatonic state."

"Cata what?" asked Glitz in perplexity.

The Master regarded Glitz like a school teacher whose star-pupil had said something phenomenally dim. "The violent assault on his senses will trip a mental defensive mechanism, and his brain will switch off," he explained patiently.

"Oh, so he'll become a zombie?"

"Temporarily. Long enough for my purposes," said the Master with a cunning expression accompanied by an evil smile.

* * *

The courtyard outside the Fantasy Factory was still shrouded in gloomy darkness when the Master's TARDIS materialised in the open street, this time taking the form of a large marble statue of Queen Victoria, due to the ship's functioning Chameleon Circuit choosing a form that would enable the craft to remain incognito. As soon as the time machine finished its landing, a pair of large doors set into the base of the statue quietly swung open and the Master stepped out into the deserted street, closely followed by Glitz and the Doctor, who walked like a sleepwalker, his eyes looking vacantly ahead.

"Stop!" commanded the Master. The Doctor immediately halted right in the middle of the courtyard, standing as straight and rigid as a marble statue, in full view of the Fantasy Factory's windows.

The Master smiled with wicked satisfaction. "This should prove an irresistible bait for the Valeyard."

However duplicitous and treacherous he was, Glitz could not help but be appalled by the Master's plan. "You Time Lords take the cake. Talk about devious. Compared to you lot, I'm as transparent as crystal!" He looked sympathetically at the Doctor. "Poor old Doc. All in all, he isn't a bad old codger. Honest, of course. Still, nobody's perfect."

But the Master was not listening as he was too busy taking cover in the shadows of a nearby alleyway, where he had a perfect view of the main balcony of the factory. "Stop slobbering and get over here," he commanded Glitz, who hastily darted into the shadows of the alleyway. As he did so, the Master's TARDIS dematerialised to a pre-set destination, safely out of sight.

The loud noise of the dematerialising TARDIS could be heard inside the factory and quickly caught the attention of the junior Mr Popplewick who had been busy inside writing some forms at his desk. Curiosity getting the better of him, he got up from his chair and walked out onto the balcony, where he could see the Doctor standing down below, right in the centre of the courtyard. As the Master and Glitz watched on from their vantage point, Popplewick stepped nervously back into the building to inform his superior. A few seconds later, the senior Mr Popplewick stepped out, his quill still neatly balanced on his ear. Upon seeing the Doctor, he gave a satisfied nod and he too moved back into the office. Finally, a few more seconds afterwards, the Valeyard emerged from the main entrance and walked onto the balcony, a white quill pen held firmly in his right hand.

Seizing his chance, the Master leapt from the shadows and fired his deadly Tissue Compression Eliminator at the black-robed figure on the balcony. But to the Master's frustration, instead of turning the Valeyard into a shrunken corpse, the fierce red beams of the Eliminator simply bounced harmlessly off the evil prosecutor and shot off into the sky. Again, the Master fired, but as before, the beams deflected away from the Valeyard, who gave the Master a condescending look.

"You really are a second rate adversary," sneered the Valeyard. "Did you imagine I'd be lured by such a transparent ploy?"

And with that, the Valeyard threw his quill into the courtyard, which suddenly exploded like a hand-grenade, just a few feet away from the Master and Glitz! Alarmed, the two unscrupulous partners in crime darted out of the alleyway and made a desperate dash across the courtyard, as the laughing Valeyard threw more quills after them, each of them exploding in a terrific display of sparks and flames.

"This is crazy!" shouted Glitz as another quill exploded close to them. "This has to be another illusion surely?"

"You're more than welcome to stay here and find out!" retorted the Master angrily as they hurriedly made their way back to the safety of the Master's TARDIS, which had placed itself in an adjoining street near to them.

From his vantage point on the balcony, the Valeyard watched with amusement as his would-be assassins ran out of sight like frightened rabbits. It amused him to make a fool out of the Doctor's so-called arch-enemy and in due course, the Master's interference would be brought to an end once and for all. With a final cackle of laughter, the Valeyard headed back into the factory, ready to implement the next stage of his plan to deal with the Doctor...


	10. Part Fourteen - Chapter 4

Down in the courtyard, the Doctor suddenly began blinking as he finally came out of his trance-like state. As he dazedly took in his surroundings, a familiar voice began calling out to him from a darkened archway nearby.

"Doctor? Where are you, Doctor? Doctor!"

The Doctor looked into the gloom of the archway and as his eyes adjusted, a familiar figure could be seen.

"Peri?" he said, still feeling somewhat confused.

"Doctor, is that you?" asked the figure in relief.

"Yes. Yes, of course it's me," replied the Doctor. "What are you doing in the Matrix?"

"Oh, never mind the questions for the moment," said Peri as she came over and urgently grabbed the Doctor's hand. "Right now, we've got to get you out of here before the Master or that Valeyard guy try any more dirty tricks."

Peri frantically pulled the Doctor into the darkened archway, where an opening could be vaguely seen in one of the walls. They stepped through and within the blink of an eye, they found themselves back in the reception area of the trial station, where a relieved figure was there to greet them.

"Doctor, thank goodness you're safe," sighed Mel happily. "Lucky that Peri was able to get you out of that unholy place."

"Hardly safe, Mel," said the Doctor seriously. "You two have brought me right back to the trial room."

"But the Valeyard and the High Council have been discredited now, haven't they?" pointed out Mel. "All you need to do is finish clearing your name, then you can call on your fellow Time Lords for help in apprehending the Valeyard."

"She's got a point, Doctor," said Peri. "I mean you haven't had much luck tracking him down alone, have you huh?"

The Doctor smiled. "Quite the pair of pragmatists, aren't you? You're quite right, of course. Let's get it over with."

With sudden resolve, the Doctor led the way through the double doors leading into the courtroom, where the Inquisitor and the members of the court were still seated.

"Doctor. You owe the court an apology for your rash behaviour," said the Inquisitor sternly.

"Well, if I do, then it is unreservedly offered, madam," said the Doctor humbly as he resumed his position in the dock.

"The charge of genocide is based on your own evidence," continued the Inquisitor, getting straight to the point of the matter.

"And refuted by the Doctor," pointed out Mel defensively.

The Inquisitor regarded Mel for a second, then turned her attention back to the Doctor. "It seems you have a champion in this young woman."

"I was there, remember?" asserted Mel.

"You've got to admit your Matrix screen isn't exactly reliable at the moment," added Peri. "I mean, you did see me get killed, yet here I am now."

The Inquisitor considered this for a second. "Would you accept these two ladies as impartial witnesses?" she asked the Doctor.

"I would trust Peri and Mel with my life," said the Doctor confidently.

"Good," said the Inquisitor. She gestured to the Keeper to activate the Matrix screen and a second later, the climatic battle with the Vervoids was replayed. As the scene played out, everyone in the court could clearly see the Doctor, Mel and the surviving crew of the starship Hyperion III using the mineral known as Vionesium to accelerate the rate of photosynthesis of the murderous plant creatures. One by one, the Vervoids collapsed to the ground in agony and withered away, effectively aged to death by the Vionesium.

"Is that a true record of what occurred?" the Inquisitor asked Mel as the tragic scene on the Matrix came to an end.

Looking a little unsure of herself, Mel turned to the Doctor. "What shall I say, Doctor?"

The Doctor gave a reassuring smile. "Just tell the truth," he said simply.

"Yes, but I don't want her to twist it like the Valeyard did," said Mel.

"The truth can't harm me," said the Doctor confidently.

Mel looked towards Peri, who gave an encouraging nod, before turning to face the Inquisitor again.

"That's what happened," she confirmed.

"Is it your contention that the Doctor was solely responsible for devising the scheme we are presently reviewing on the Matrix?" said the Inquisitor.

"Oh, absolutely," said Mel enthusiastically. "Without the Doctor, we'd all ended up on the Vervoids' revolting compost heap."

"A unique solution," remarked the Inquisitor.

"Out of this world," agreed Mel.

"An appropriate expression, wouldn't you say, my lords?" said the Inquisitor dryly to the members of the jury, who all gave a mutter of agreement.

Mel's face fell as she realised that something had gone badly wrong. "Appropriate? What do you mean by that?"

"Yeah, you guys are talking as if this is some kind of lynching party," added Peri in concern. She turned earnestly to the Doctor. "You told Mel that the truth couldn't hurt you. Tell them it's all a mistake, Doctor. Tell them you hadn't a choice!"

But the Doctor's expression was solemn and grave. "There's always a choice, Peri," he said quietly.

The Inquisitor rose to her feet and gave the Doctor a hardened look. "Doctor, you stand accused of genocide. The evidence is incontrovertible. The verdict is guilty. Your life is therefore forfeit." She gestured to the chancellery guards. "Take him from this court to the place of execution."

Peri and Mel looked horrified. "No, you can't be serious!" exclaimed Peri.

"You can't do this!" chimed in Mel. The two girls turned imploringly to the Doctor, but the Time Lord's face was resolute.

"Unless we are prepared to sacrifice our lives for the good of all, then evil and anarchy will spread like the plague. The rule of law must prevail," he told his two young companions gently before addressing the Inquisitor with a sad, but noble stance. "Madam, I accept your verdict."

As Peri and Mel looked on in dismay, the Doctor moved out of the dock and allowed his two guards to lead him out of the courtroom and back into the Matrix courtyard to meet his final end.

But all was not as it seemed. For at very moment, the events that had just taken place were being shown on the _real _Matrix screen in the _real _courtroom!

"The Doctor's been tricked into believing that that was the real trial room," exclaimed the bona fide Mel in alarm. "He thinks he's guilty and he's going to let himself be executed!"


	11. Part Fourteen - Chapter 5

Peri glowered angrily at the jurists. "You're just a load of big phonies, aren't you? You're supposed to be upholding the law, yet you're happy to stand by and let the Doctor get murdered!"

"We cannot interfere," reaffirmed the Inquisitor impassively.

"Well I can," said Mel fiercely before she began to dash for the door. The Keeper moved to trip her up as he did with Peri earlier, only to yelp in pain as Peri ran forward and stamped down hard on his foot, before snatching the Key of Rassilon from around his shoulders. Before anyone could stop them, the two girls had darted out of the courtroom and straight across the reception area to the stained-glass door set in the wall. Hurriedly, Peri inserted the key into the access panel and as the door began to slid open, the two girls leapt into the brilliant white light of the Matrix. Seconds later, they found themselves being deposited in the same alleyway where the Doctor and Glitz had first arrived.

"Okay, now we're here, where do we start looking?" asked Peri frantically as she took in their gloomy surroundings.

Keeping her eyes and ears open, Mel became aware of the faint sound of horse hooves clip-clopping down the street. "Let's try down there," she said decisively and they both ran past the dingy buildings towards the source of the sound. Reaching the end of the street, they were just in time to see a large horse-driven wooden tumbril go past them, with the Doctor standing passively on the top, flanked on either side by guards.

"Doctor!" Peri cried out, but the Doctor made no indication that he heard her as the death cart turned a corner and disappeared from sight. Aghast, Peri and Mel ran breathlessly after the cart.

The cart's death march continued on until it finally drew to a halt in the the main courtyard, right next to a large scaffold, upon which was a large guillotine. It was a fairly primitive, but nonetheless effective, form of execution, with the sharp end of its cruel blade glinting in the light of the gas lamps, ready to spill the blood of a Time Lord. Preparing to disembark from the cart and meet his fate, the Doctor cast a final reflective look about the darkened vicinity of the Fantasy Factory.

"It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done," he mused. "It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

At that very moment, Peri and Mel suddenly came running into the courtyard, practically sprinting over to the cart.

"Never mind the big Hollywood heroics," gasped Peri. "You're not finished yet, Doctor!"

"Go away, the pair of you, go away!" hissed the Doctor urgently, his eyes darting back and forth nervously.

"That trial was an illusion!" exclaimed Mel.

The very moment Mel had blurted this out, the guards, the scaffold and the death cart all blinked out of existence! For a comic second, the Doctor hung in midair, before falling to the cobbled ground in a most unseemly heap.

"Ow! You've ruined everything!" grumbled the Doctor as he scrambled to his feet.

"Hey, we've just saved your bacon," said Peri, feeling a little stung by the Doctor's ingratitude.

"All you two've done is keep me from a confrontation with the Valeyard!" sighed the Doctor.

Mel was puzzled. "But you were on your way to..."

"To an execution block as a result of a bogus trial and my noble act of self-sacrifice," completed the Doctor irritably.

"You mean you knew that trial was an illusion?" gaped Peri. "You were just playing along the whole time?"

"Precisely," confirmed the Doctor.

"But how did you know in the first place?" asked Mel.

"Because of you, Mel," explained the Doctor rather loudly. "In your evidence you testified you'd heard me deny the charge of genocide, but you weren't even there. You hadn't been inside the courtroom at that time. And with your extraordinary ability of total recall, you wouldn't have made such an elementary mistake." He turned his attention upwards to the night sky and raised the volume of his voice, in order for his unseen opponent to hear him quite clearly. "The Valeyard overestimates his own cleverness. Like all megalomaniacs, he is consumed with his own vanity!"

The Doctor gave a satisfied sigh and began to make his way to the Factory entrance. "There, that should inflame his bloated ego. Come on."

"Hang on, where are we off to now?" asked Peri.

"To find Mister J.J. Chambers," replied the Doctor as he bounded purposely up the balcony stairs with his two companions in tow, unaware that at that very moment, sinister eyes were watching them...

* * *

Inside the comfort of his TARDIS, the Master had been watching the Doctor's near 'execution' on the scanner screen with considerable amusement and he gave a satisfied smile as he watched his arch rival enter the Fantasy Factory, closely followed by Peri and Mel.

"Excellent, everything is proceeding exactly as I calculated it would," said the Master. He turned to Glitz. "I want you to rejoin the Doctor and lead him to the Valeyard."

"No chance!" scoffed Glitz. "You don't catch me going near no more quill pens again. I'm just going to stay here till I can... get back to my own kind... and some... honest... thieving..."

But Glitz's protest trailed off as his eyes became transfixed by the small shiny jewel that the Master had thrust in front of his face. Glitz's mesmerized eyes followed the movement of the jewel as it began to swing back and forth on its thin cord in a captivating manner.

"Splendid, splendid," said the Master, believing that Glitz was now completely under his hypnotic control. "Listen to me. Are you listening, Sabalom Glitz?"

"Not really. I was just wondering how many grotzits this little bauble cost you," admitted Glitz as he greedily snatched the jewel from the Master's hand. Exasperated, the Master crossed to the control console and pulled out a large old-fashioned chest from underneath.

"Perhaps this will appeal to your crass soul," he said dryly as he opened the lid of the chest to reveal a veritable treasure trove of gold, diamonds, rubies and all other forms of valuable stones and metals! Now Glitz really was mesmerised as he drank in the glittering contents of the chest.

"Oh, truly a wondrous sight for a connoisseur such as myself," he said with a greedy smile as he knelt down and began to run his hands over the treasure before him. "There isn't a living creature in the universe I couldn't bribe with this little lot."

"Yours, if you follow my orders," stated the Master as he then slammed down the lid of the chest, just narrowly missing Glitz's fingers!


	12. Part Fourteen - Chapter 6

Back in the Fantasy Factory, the junior Mr Popplewick had been busy in the office of his senior partner, trying to file the forms that he had just completed, when the Doctor and his two young companions came striding in.

"Oh, it's you again, sir," Popplewick said wearily.

"Yes, can't seem to be able to stay away," smiled the Doctor pleasantly. "I was actually hoping to have a quick look about the forms in Mr Popplewick senior's office as a matter of fact."

"I'm sorry sir, but that is out of the question," said Popplewick firmly. "Without a form of permission from a senior member of staff, I cannot allow you to go through any of our files."

An idea popped into Peri's head. "Hey, what about this?" she asked as she held out the Matrix key that she had snatched from the Keeper earlier. "I mean, this gives us access to the whole of the Matrix. Doesn't that also give us the right to poke around your books and things?"

Popplewick examined the key for a moment and then meekly nodded in agreement. "Yes, that seems in order, young lady. Very well, you may have a look around, but do please try not to make a mess. As I'm sure you've been informed, order is everything in this establishment."

"I assure you, we'll endeavour to leave this place as gloomy and dull as it always has been," guaranteed the Doctor. With a courteous nod, the junior Mr Popplewick left the room to focus on some other tasks at hand. As soon as the clerk was out of sight and earshot, the Doctor began to search the room, rummaging through the old desk and dusty shelves.

"I still reckon we'd be better off outside the Matrix," remarked Mel. "It seems to me we should try and draw the Valeyard out to where the odds would be more even."

"And how do we do that?" asked the Doctor, only half-listening as he rummaged through some documents in the drawers of the desk.

"I hate to say this but, er, use you as bait," suggested Mel a little awkwardly.

"Oh come off it, we saw the Master try to use that trick already a few minutes ago," pointed out Peri. "This Chambers guy isn't likely to fall for it a second time."

"Indeed," agreed the Doctor. "Besides, we are rather assuming that I'm the only one he's after."

Peri and Mel exchanged puzzled looks. "Huh?" said Peri at last.

"Well doesn't it strike you as rather odd that my trial has been taking place on a derelict space station and not on Gallifrey?" said the Doctor. "For such a major show-trial, why would the High Council have it take place in a particularly remote part of space and time?"

"Don't ask me," said Mel. "I'm finding all this crazy enough as it is."

She noticed the waiting room door and went over to take a look inside. She took hold of the handle, pulled it open...

"Don't go through that..." the Doctor began in alarm.

Too late. No sooner had Mel opened the door, she found herself facing a giant scaly red dragon! With an angry roar, the dragon hissed flames at Mel, causing her to scream in alarm, while Peri hurriedly ran over and slammed the door shut.

"...door," completed the Doctor weakly before he resumed his search.

* * *

Meanwhile in the empty adjoining office, Sabalom Glitz was conducting a vigorous search of his own. Unwilling to simply play along to the Master's tune, he had decided first to have a rummage around the Factory for anything valuable that he could nick and sell off at a very high price. Turning his attention to the junior Popplewick's desk, he lifted the lid to have a peek inside. What he saw inside made his eyes widen and his jaw drop in delighted surprise. Slowly and carefully, he removed from the desk an object resembling a large brown metal cassette box. Glitz could not help but tremble with glee as he examined the object in his hands. A treasure box was a fairly large payment in itself, but this...

"Sticky fingers, Mister Glitz?" came a dry voice from the main door. Glitz looked up to see that the senior Popplewick had quietly entered the room, an old fashioned top hat held firmly in his hand.

"The Matrix memory bank," said Glitz at last, looking back down at the data storage box in his hand. "I thought this was destroyed on Ravalox."

"That was a duplicate. This is the master tape," explained Popplewick as he strode into the room.

Glitz looked over the box with all-too obvious greed. "Phase three, four, five and six. All the secrets of the Matrix."

"Not all," admitted Popplewick. "The primitive phases one and two have been relegated to the archives. Now kindly put it back and do as you're told."

But Glitz did not put the box back. Instead, he held the object firmly to his chest as though it was one of the most valuable treasures in the universe. Which indeed it was.

"I'd give my soul for this," breathed Glitz truthfully, unwilling to lose the secrets of the Matrix a second time.

"You would? Would you, indeed?" said Popplewick coldly as pulled out an old nineteenth-century ball pistol from the inside of his hat and aimed it point-blank at Glitz.

Glitz gave a nervous laugh and drew back a few steps. "Heh, you'd like to negotiate, Mister Popplewick? Sir?"


	13. Part Fourteen - Chapter 7

"Look at this, you two," said the Doctor as he examined a sheet of paper that he had removed from the desk. Peri and Mel came over and peered over the Doctor's shoulder at what was written on the scroll.

"A list of names," observed Mel as she made out about fifteen names handwritten onto the scroll, with a line running through each and every one of them.

"These are the names of the Time Lords that are attending my trial," added the Doctor. "Every member of the Ultimate Court of Appeal, the supreme guardians of Gallifreyan law."

Peri looked closely at the list herself. "Say, how come they're all crossed through?" she asked regarding the thick black lines running through the names.

"Do you notice something else?" said the Doctor apprehensively.

"No."

"The handwriting," specified the Doctor.

Mel looked again at the list and her face lit up in a mixture of realisation and puzzlement. "It's yours!" she exclaimed.

Before any of them had a chance to work out what any of this meant, the office door burst open and Mr Popplewick senior was bundled inside, held at gunpoint by Glitz who now had hold of Popplewick's pistol, while Popplewick was now carrying the Matrix data box in his hand.

"I really must protest at this unseemly behaviour! You are contravening all known procedure!" bellowed Popplewick angrily, obviously unhappy at having a gun pointed at his head.

Glitz gave the Doctor and his companions a shrewd smile. "Due to my not inconsiderable powers of persuasion, this minion has agreed to take us to his boss, the mysterious Mister J. J. Chambers."

The Doctor smiled thoughtfully as he pocketed the scroll into his coat. Although he suspected a trap of some kind, he decided to take full advantage of this turn of events.

"Will you lead the way, Mister Popplewick?" he asked, gesturing to the door of the waiting room.

"No!" said Popplewick in alarm before quickly regaining his composure. "No, not through there. Mister Chambers is across the courtyard, sir."

"If he isn't, there'll be one bureaucrat less in the Matrix," remarked Glitz as waved the pistol threateningly at Popplewick. They all began to file out of the room when the Doctor suddenly moved over to Popplewick and plucked the feather quill pen from his ear.

"You won't be needing this, Mister Popplewick," the Doctor said as he carefully placed the quill into Popplewick's hat that was sitting on the nearest desk, vaguely recalling from his subconscious mind the exploding quill pens that the Valeyard had used against the Master earlier.

"Very astute of you, Doc," remarked Glitz. "You should live a long time."

The Doctor gave a confident smile. "I already have. Over nine hundred years."

With that little matter dealt with, Glitz resumed marching Popplewick out to the courtyard. The Doctor began to follow, when Mel suddenly grabbed his arm urgently.

"What's the secret?" she asked in a whisper.

"Secret, Mel?" he answered with an innocent look. "What secret?"

"Oh come on, Doctor, this whole thing smells fishy to me," joined in Peri. "I mean finding the Valeyard can't now be this easy, huh?"

The Doctor did not reply. Instead, he smiled, gave a meaningful wink and led the way out of the factory.

"You know, I am beginning to realise that I have misjudged Mister J. J. Chambers, alias the Valeyard," said the Doctor as he and the others made their way down the balcony steps and across the courtyard.

"Not for the first time," responded Mel. "In fact, how you've managed to survive nine hundred odd years beats me."

The small group continued walking for a short while before reaching one of the other factory buildings which had a number of large chimneys placed on top.

"Mister Chambers is in there sir," said Popplewick. "He's quite eager to renew your acquaintance."

"Is he? Well we better not disappoint him then, had we?" said the Doctor as he made his way over to the main doors, pushed them open and strode into the building.

"Hey, wait up!" cried Peri as she and Mel darted after him. As soon as the three of them were inside, Glitz turned to Popplewick.

"We had an agreement. I've done my bit. I've delivered the Doctor. Now hand over the Matrix memory tapes."

"Oh, very well," grumbled Popplewick as he handed over the data box to Glitz, who quickly snatched it away. The second he had a firm hold on the box, Glitz handed the pistol back to Popplewick and began to make his way out of the courtyard.

"Tell the Doctor I didn't sell him down the Milky Way for nothing," Glitz called back cheerily.

"I'm sure that will be a consolation to him in his final moments," Popplewick replied as he raised his pistol, aimed the barrel at Glitz's turned back and pulled the trigger. There was a loud bang as the powder of the gun exploded, but to Popplewick's surprise, instead of falling to the ground dead, Glitz simply turned around and smugly held a small metal ball, the ammunition of the pistol that he had removed from the weapon a few minutes ago. Popplewick looked down at his useless weapon in befuddlement, as a familiar figure clad in black emerged from the shadows.

"Very astute, Sabalom Glitz," said the Master almost in admiration as he aimed his Tissue Compression Eliminator at the conman. "But this is loaded."

Glitz gave the Master a hurt expression. "What's that for? I thought we trusted each other. I was on my way to see you."

The Master smiled dispassionately and gestured with his weapon. "My trust of you is in equal proportion to your trust of me. The TARDIS is over there."

Popplewick watched as the two uneasy allies walked out of sight and he allowed himself a small smile as he heard the Master's TARDIS take-off. Then he turned back to the factory building and went purposefully inside.


	14. Part Fourteen - Chapter 8

"Now, isn't that an impressive sight," breathed the Doctor admiringly.

Upon entering the building, the Time Lord and his friends had found themselves in a large chamber filled with various forms of 19th Century equipment such as Victorian steam engines and generators. In the centre of the room, encircled by handrails, was a large metal structure shaped like a hemisphere, which was currently opened up like an eyelid, revealing a deep shaft inside that seemed to go down forever. A beam of intense blue light run from the end of the shaft, through the open hemisphere and up one of the chimneys of the building.

"Doesn't look particularly Victorian to me," remarked Peri. "What's it supposed to be?"

"A Time Vent," explained the Doctor. "One of the various sources of power for the Matrix. Works along the same principle as the Eye of Harmony. The energy beam you see helps to maintain the structure of the Matrix, though the vent itself is designed to close shut if too much energy starts to be poured in. Quite a magnificent display of craftsmanship, isn't it?"

Peri peered over the edge of the handrail and looked down the shaft. "Wow, it looks as though it goes down forever."

"It does, so I wouldn't recommend falling in," warned the Doctor.

Exasperated, Mel could not help but cut in. "Hold on a minute you two, this isn't the time for sightseeing, we've got things to deal with at the moment. The Valeyard, remember?"

"Hmm, how could I forget?" said the Doctor as Mr Popplewick came over to join them.

"Hey, where's Glitz?" asked Peri suspiciously as she realised that the intergalactic crook was not with them.

"I don't know," said the Doctor, turning to cast a skeptical look at Popplewick. "Decided to stay outside on guard perhaps, eh, Mister Popplewick?"

"Er, yes," said Popplewick awkwardly. "I perceive Mister Chambers is not here. I shall go and find him for you, sir."

"Yes. Yes, you do that, Mister Popplewick," said the Doctor with an almost incredulous tone in his voice.

With a curt nod, Popplewick turned and walked off, disappearing behind the large gears and belts of a 19th century generator placed next to the time vent. Once he was out of view, the Doctor quickly moved to a workbench against the wall and grabbed a length of rope from amongst the various scattered tools placed on top.

"Now what are you up to?" asked Peri.

"If we knew what's going on, maybe we could help," added Mel.

But the Doctor simply shushed them before darting after Popplewick, taking care to keep the rope in his hand out of view. Peri and Mel followed him in time to spot Popplewick in the corner closing a pair of wooden doors for an inbuilt alcove, the word 'DANGER' painted in thick black letters across the large timber boards. Noticing that he had been followed, Popplewick calmly walked over to the Doctor and his friends.

"I'm awfully sorry, sir. I don't seem to be able to locate Mister Chambers," said Popplewick apologetically.

The Doctor did not look in the least bit surprised. "Yes. Well, I rather thought you might have some trouble..." His words suddenly trailed off as he shot a surprised look past Popplewick's shoulder. "Who's that?"

Popplewick turned to look in the direction that the Doctor was indicating. No sooner than he did so, the Doctor sprang into action, grabbing Popplewick by the arms. Although confused, Peri and Mel sprinted over to help and within seconds, they had successfully tied Popplewick's hands behind his back and to the nearest metal railing encircling the time vent.

Popplewick was beside himself with rage. "Untie me this instant! This is preposterous. You will regret this. Mister Chambers will demand an explanation for this iniquitous, this wicked behaviour."

"Well, let's ask him, shall we?" said the Doctor with a knowing expression. He reached up to the side of Popplewick's face, took hold, and began _peeling_ it away! Peri and Mel dropped their mouths in astonishment as they realised that 'Popplewick' was wearing a thick rubber mask and they were even more amazed as the Doctor tugged the whole mask away, to reveal the cold, grim face of...

The Valeyard.

With a satisfied expression, the Doctor dropped the mask to the ground and took hold of 'Popplewick's' clark clothes, pulling them away to reveal the Valeyard's own black courtroom robes neatly worn underneath the immaculate disguise.

"Whoa, no way!" said Peri at last. "How did you work out that the Valeyard was Popplewick the whole time?"

"The performance was too grotesque to be real," replied the Doctor, not taking his eyes off the Valeyard for even a second. "I have never been able to resist a touch of the Grand Guignol. Have we?"

"You'll soon have ample scope to indulge in melodrama," said the Valeyard sarcastically as he returned the Doctor's piercing stare.

"Really? Why?" asked the Doctor almost demandingly.

As this exchange of spats was going on, Mel had crossed over to the alcove and pulled the large wooden doors wide open, to reveal a complex piece of machinery. Although tailored to fit in with the room's Victorian setting, with large wooden panels mounting the whole thing, the equipment inside was far more advance with a complex mass of inbuilt circuits, gauges and blinking lights, more akin to an alien computer than any 19th century appliance.

"Take a look at this," said Mel as she looked over the strange device which hummed with life. "That's quite some computer we've got here."

The Doctor crossed over and examined the unusual contraption for himself. "A maser," he said at last.

"A maser?"

"An acronym," explained the Doctor, "for 'Microwave Amplification and Stimulated Emission of Radiation'."

"Never mind the technobabble," retorted Peri. "What's it all for?"

"Yes, Doctor. Enlighten us. Disseminate the news," goaded the Valeyard with a unusually smug look on his face.

"Disseminate?" The Doctor looked confused for a second, but his expression turned to a mixture of disbelief and shock as he realised what the Valeyard was saying. "A particle disseminator?"

The Valeyard smiled viciously. "One of the ultimate weapons, capable of tearing anything as small as a fly or as large as a galaxy apart atom by atom, until nothing remains, not even the smallest speck of dust. And it's all fully charged, ready to deal out death in just a short while."

"You're not seriously thinking of using that thing in here, are you? Destroy us and you destroy yourself," pointed out Mel. But the Valeyard simply chuckled at her remark, not looking at all concerned about this prospect.

"What's the gag?" demanded Peri, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.

The Doctor's face fell and he suddenly pulled out the parchment he had pocketed earlier. "I've just realised. My writing. _Our writing_. A hit list." He glared at the Valeyard. "The whole trial was a trap, wasn't it? Not just for me, but for every member of the court! That's why the whole proceedings were being held on this space station in the middle of nowhere. It was somewhere where you could quietly bump them all off!"

"But why?" asked Mel. "What could be gained from that?"

"A power vacuum," smirked the Valeyard. "Can you imagine the chaos that would occur on Gallifrey if all these guardians of the law were eliminated in one fell swoop? I have plans to use the weapon to deal with the High Council afterwards, leaving the path open for me to use the Matrix to take complete control of Gallifrey."

"And how do you hope to do all that? These so-called supreme guardians of the law are all in the trial room, and we're in the Matrix," pointed out Peri.

"The Matrix screen!" realised the Doctor. "He must have linked the disseminator to it." He dashed over to the weapon and frantically checked the settings. To his dismay, he found the disseminator was already charged, as the Valeyard had claimed, and preprogrammed to dispense its deadly rays right into the courtroom.

"Peri, Mel! Get back to the trial room. Tell them to disconnect the Matrix screen and evacuate the court," instructed the Doctor urgently.

"But..." Mel began to protest.

"Go! Do it, or there'll be mass murder!" snapped the Doctor frantically.

"Come on, Red, we haven't a second to waste!" added Peri as she took Mel by the arm and pulled her towards the exit. The two girls dashed out of the building and back towards the Matrix door, while the Doctor began to desperately examine the disseminator, as the Valeyard burst out laughing insanely, certain of his ultimate victory...


	15. Part Fourteen - Chapter 9

Back in the courtroom, the Inquisitor was pacing agitatedly up and down, trying to ignore the amused look of the Master on the Matrix screen and the worried stares of the jury.

"My lady, you must compose yourself," insisted one juror. "We must maintain a certain decorum and dignity."

"Blast decorum and dignity!" bellowed the Inquisitor furiously. "We have intruders running around the Matrix causing who knows how much havoc! The case prosecutor has proven to be a renegade and this whole trial has been made a shambles. The situation cannot possibly get worse!"

"Ah, but that is where you are mistaken, madam," grinned the Master on the screen. "For you, the situation is about to get considerably more distressing."

The side-doors to the courtroom suddenly swung open and Maxil, commander of the Chancellery Guard, strode in. A humourless and zealous man, he bore an uncanny resemblance to the Doctor's current incarnation, due to a coincidence in regeneration, though the commander's personality was a complete contrast to the Doctor as Maxil was overly obedient to the letter of the law and could be extremely ruthless when necessary. However, in this moment, his normally calm expression had given way to one of considerable alarm.

"My lady, we've just received an urgent message from Arcadia. The High Council has been deposed and placed under close arrest."

"WHAT?!" exclaimed the Inquisitor.

Maxil nodded solemnly. "It seems that footage from this trial has been leaked to every Time Lord citizen in every city, specifically that referring to the High Council's actions against Earth. The people are protesting at this injustice and insurrectionists are now running amok on Gallifrey!"

"Thank you, Commander, that is the news I'd been awaiting," said the Master, satisfied that the leak he had arranged had succeeded in causing the mayhem he had wanted. "Listen carefully, all of you. I have an edict to deliver. Somewhere the Valeyard and the Doctor are engaged in their squalid duel. With luck, they'll kill each other, but that is a mere coincidental occurrence. What I have to impart is of vital importance to all of you. Now that Gallifrey is collapsing into chaos, none of you will be needed. Your office will be abolished. Only I can impose order." To make the point, he held up the Matrix box before the horrified members of the court. "I have control of the Matrix. To disregard my commands will be to invite summary execution."

The Inquisitor and the rest of the court members could not believe their ears. Anarchy had descended on Gallifrey and now this loathsome renegade was in a position to seize complete control of the Time Lords. Things had indeed gotten worse. Unimaginably so...

* * *

"Now that you've purged that from your system, can we get on? Load the cassette," said Glitz impatiently, leaning against the console of the Master's TARDIS, as the evil Time Lord began connecting the Matrix memory bank into the main controls. Such a contemptuous remark would normally have meant death for Glitz, but so good was the Master's mood, he simply gave Glitz an amused expression regarding the conman's small-mindedness.

"You really are the archetypal philistine," the Master chuckled as he finished plugging the data bank into the console. "Moments such as this should be savoured."

He flicked a switch on the console, activating the data box. Suddenly, the two men found themselves flung back against the walls of the control room by a powerful forcefield and the air started to shimmer as powerful waves of energy began to emanate from the box right into the control room.

"Wha? What's happening?" Glitz managed to splutter, finding himself unable to move as his speech becoming more slurred by the second.

The Master realised in shock what was going on. "A booby-trap," he managed to say. "The device is generating a time bubble, freezing us in time!"

No sooner did the Master manage to force out these words, than he and Glitz became as still as statues, unable to move at all as the time bubble expanded through the whole ship, freezing it in a single micro-second of time. The two criminals were trapped in limbo, condemned to perpetual imprisonment within the Matrix.

Once again, the Master had been outwitted by the Valeyard...

* * *

Back in the chamber of the Time Vent, the Doctor was tinkering like mad with the circuits of the particle disseminator, trying to find some way to shut it down before it could deal out its deadly energies into the courtroom. But so far he had no luck, as he kept coming against various failsafes to ensure that the mechanism remained operational. No sooner did he shut down one circuit, another would switch on to take its place.

"You are elevating futility to a high art," mocked the Valeyard as he watched the Doctor's seemingly fruitless efforts with amusement. "There's nothing you can do to save those monotonous law-abiding fools."

But the Doctor remained undeterred in his labours. "If you could compile this monstrosity, it follows that I should be able to unravel it," he said steadfastly.

The Doctor returned to his fiddling and there was a display of sparks as he managed to short-circuit one of the weapon's components. But as he continued with his attempts, he was unaware that the Valeyard was carefully and discretely flexing his wrists, gradually loosening the ropes keeping him prisoner...

* * *

Having just witnessed the Master's defeat and imprisonment on the Matrix screen, the relieved members of the court had just started discussing plans about returning to Gallifrey in order to help restore order, when the main doors burst opened and Peri and Mel charged breathlessly in.

"Disconnect the Matrix!" shouted Mel imperatively.

The Inquisitor was taken aback by this unsubtle entrance. "We cannot switch off without the Keeper, and he's not present."

"Then get out of here, quickly. Your lives depend on it!" cried out Peri in earnest. Such was the distress in her voice, that the jurors jumped out of their seats and hastily made their way to the doors.

Suddenly, the Matrix screen exploded and through the smoking hole, deadly waves of charged particles began to flood in, shaped like triangular snowflakes that glowed an intense blue. One unlucky Time Lord got struck by one such molecule and with a short scream of abject terror, he was instantly disintegrated.

"Oh no, we're too late!" said Mel despairingly as everyone ducked their heads, frightfully trying to avoid meeting the same horrible fate as the ill-fated juror.

Then, just as suddenly as they appeared, the lethal ions began to move away from the court members and fly back from whence they came. Everyone looked on in amazement as the last energy bolt disappeared through the gaping hole left in the Matrix screen.

"What... what happened?" stammered one Time Lord in relief.

Peri grinned. "The Doctor happened."

* * *

"Eureka! And you said it couldn't be immobilised," said the Doctor in triumph. Just a few seconds ago, he had finished rewiring the particle disseminator, and upon throwing a switch, caused the whole contraption to burst into flames.

The Valeyard began to look worried. "What have you done?" he demanded.

The Doctor looked smug. "I induced an anti-phase signal into the telemetry unit. The whole system should self-destruct."

"You blundering imbecile!" roared the Valeyard. "You triggered a ray phase shift! All that virulent energy will be drawn away from the courtroom and back into here!"

Before the Doctor knew what was happening, the Valeyard finally wrenched himself free of his bonds, grabbed hold of the Doctor and threw him over the railing, causing him to land right next to the open time vent. More dazed than hurt, the Doctor saw the Valeyard dash over to the disseminator machine, just as the glowing triangular particles began flooding through the machine into the chamber.

"No, it's too late!" hollered the Valeyard as he watched all his hard work come apart. Filled with insane rage, he charged at the Doctor and grabbed him, shoving him towards the edge of the time vent.

"Don't be a fool!" protested the Doctor as he fought to keep his balance. But the Valeyard, consumed with hatred, was beyond all reason now.

"You have ruined all my plans. But if I'm to die, than so must you!"

Arms locked in mortal combat, the two Time Lords tethered perilously on the threshold of the vent. For one ghastly second, they hung there, then with a final effort, the Valeyard threw all his might on the Doctor and they tumbled right over the brink and into the open mouth of the vent!


	16. Part Fourteen - Chapter 10

Frantically, the Doctor pulled one arm free from the Valeyard's vice-like grip and, just in the nick of time, grabbed a handhold on the ledge, stoping him from falling in. But the Valeyard was less fortunate. Having lost his hold on the Doctor, he plummeted right down the infinite shaft, giving out a final horrific scream which echoed ghoulishly around the duct as he disappeared from view.

Catching his breath, the Doctor pulled himself out of the vent, just as its large hemispherical doors began to automatically close shut, its mechanism sensing an unusual amount of energy being poured into the Matrix. Seeing the charged ions still flooding into the chamber via the disseminator, the Doctor darted out of the building, dashed across the courtyard and threw himself through the Matrix door, which closed shut behind him. A second later, the snowflake-like ions began to pour out of the factory chimney, causing everything to glow a blinding hot blue. Then, unable to contain all the energy being poured in any longer, the entire Fantasy Factory was consumed in a colossal explosion!

For a few minutes, all was intense whiteness. Than, a figure slowly came into view. It was the junior Mr Popplewick, who had been spared being obliterated on the simple basis that he was not real in the first place. With a weary expression, he sadly surveyed the white void that had once been home to the Factory Factory, the place of ultimate perfection.

"Oh dear," sighed Popplewick. "However will I explain this to the proprietor?"

Then he began to smile as a silver lining came to mind. Explaining such disturbance on this scale would require a fair amount of paperwork to prepare and sort...

* * *

All had turned quiet in the courtroom as the members of the court pulled themselves together, relieved at having been so miraculously saved. As Peri, Mel and the Inquisitor surveyed the damage caused by the ions, the Doctor bounded in through the main doors and smiled as he saw that all was well.

"Ah. Now, let me see. Where were we?" said the Doctor modestly as he crossed over to the Inquisitor. "I was about to be sentenced, I believe."

The Inquisitor smiled warmly in gratitude. "All charges against you are dismissed, Doctor. We owe you an immense debt of gratitude."

"And, ahem, apologies for the, um, inconvenience you and your friends had been put through," added one of the peers in embarrassment, to which his fellow jurors muttered in humble agreement.

"Now then, once law and order have been restored, a new High Council will need to be elected," continued the Inquisitor. "Can I persuade you to stand for Lord President again?"

"Ah, very kind of you madam," said the Doctor shrewdly, clearly not keen on the idea, "but I really should return Mel to her proper place in time with my future self. Besides, I've a better idea."

"He's going to suggest you stand," clarified Mel.

"Indeed I am," smiled the Doctor. "And were there such a thing as an intergalactic postal vote, you'd have mine."

Peri laughed. "I shouldn't broadcast that, if I were you," she remarked to the Inquisitor.

"Oh, you could do me one small favour, if you would," said the Doctor as he remembered something.

"Simply name it," said the Inquisitor.

"When the Matrix is restored, you can do what you like with the Master, but exercise leniency with Sabalom Glitz. He's not beyond redemption."

"Just don't let him anywhere near the crown jewels," chuckled Mel as she, Peri and the Doctor strode out of the courtroom and into the reception area.

"Gallifrey doesn't have any crown jewels," remarked the Doctor as he fished out the TARDIS key and prepared to insert it into the lock of his time-space ship.

Peri gave an awkward shuffle. "Um Doctor, there's something I've been meaning to say. Since you're going to take Mel back to where she came from, I was wondering if... I mean, what I'm trying to say is..."

"You want to go home too, don't you?" said the Doctor with a sad, but understanding smile.

Peri looked surprised for a second, then she realised how the Doctor knew. "The Time Lords showed you my talk with Yrcanos in the cell, on that Matrix screen, didn't they? Do they always eavesdrop like that?"

"I'm afraid they can do, yes," admitted the Doctor.

"Are you sure you want to leave?" asked Mel.

Peri sighed. "Well, it's just that after Ravalox and Thoros Beta, I've been a bit homesick for my own time and place. I mean, I'd love to keep travelling in the TARDIS, but..."

"It's all right, Peri," said the Doctor reassuringly. "I understand."

"Mind you, knowing how temperamental the TARDIS can get, it'll probably be some time before either of us can get home," joked Mel.

"Yeah, you've got a point there," laughed Peri. "Well maybe along the way we can get a decent wig to cover up this bald head Crozier left me with."

"And while we're about it, we can all have a nice glass of carrot juice..." began Mel.

"Carrot juice?!" exclaimed the Doctor in horror.

"...and then we'll get you back on the exerciser."

Peri grinned. "Oh yeah, now that I've got to see."

The Doctor was perplexed. "You two are ganging up on me! You know, I think I was rash in turning down that offer of the Presidency."

He began to turn back towards the courtroom, but Mel tugged at his sleeve in amusement and the Doctor reluctantly led his two companions into the TARDIS. A few seconds later, the TARDIS gave the usual groaning noise of dematerialisation and faded from view, taking its passengers towards their next adventure.

* * *

The Inquisitor sighed as she heard the Doctor's TARDIS takeoff. It was a pity that the Doctor had no interest in being president, but then again, he might have proven to be quite insufferable to put up with in office. She began to lead the other jurists out of the adjourned courtroom, passing the Keeper on the way, who had his head bowed at her.

"Repair the Matrix, Keeper. Requisition anything you need," instructed the Inquisitor absently as she and the others marched out of the chamber.

"Yes, my lady," replied the robed figure. Then, once everyone-else was out of the chamber, the figure lifted his head. But while the robes were the Keeper's, the face was not his.

It was the Valeyard's. And the the cold, dark laugh he gave echoed ominously across the chamber...


End file.
